| Mrs Nafisa Ali,
Chairperson of the Children’s Film Society, India, said
today that the selection of the films for the 15th International
Children Festival now up.derway here had been done in a free
and transparent manner without any interference from any officials.
Furthermore, she said the Selection Committee
had 12 members from different parts of the country including
three from Andhra Pradesh. These members had seen all the
300 plus entries and then decided which of the 119 would be
shown at this Festival and the sections in which they would
be seen.
Some of the Selection Committee members
who were also present at a press meet here also said they
had been given complete freedom to take
their own decision without any interference. Mr Narendra Singh
said the members represented diverse fields and only some
were filmmakers. Mr Ramdas Naidu and Mr Ajay Karthik said
the Committee had given cinematic excellence the greatest
weightage while selecting the films. Mrs Ali said that the
digital films screened at this festival were of good quality
and it was possible that there may be a separate competition
for such films in ICFF 2009. Meanwhile, she reiterated her
earlier decision to institute the National Children’s
Film Awards which would be given from November 2008 as she
wanted good films to be ‘rewarded, awarded, and activated’.
Asked about the Children’s Film Complex
in Hyderabad for which land had been given by the Andhra Government,
she said a sum of money had also been committed for the purpose
of constructing the complex. However, she said the exact modalities
of how this money was to be spent would be decided between
the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and the State Government.
The CFSI was only the implementing agency. She said once the
modalities were worked out, the CFSI would hold a competition
for the best architectural designs and then start work. She
hoped that this would given during her tenure as Chairperson.
Festival Director Kuldeep Sinha also said the allocation of
the money would come after the plan was finalised. Referring
to criticisms by Union Minister Dasari Narayan Rao
|
GAJJU’S PROGRAMME TODAY
Gajju, the Golden Elephant, is triumphantly
trumpeting his presence in the beautiful Pearl City. Everywhere
he goes, he finds people talk of nothing but the 15th International
Children’s Film Festival. No wonder he is beaming from
ear to ear and jumping with joy.
But he knows that his festival is not the
only one that makes news. The largest festival for non-feature
films, the Mumbai International Film Festival for Short, Documentary
and animation films is to be held early in February next year.
Mr Kuldeep Sinha, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the
Children’s Film Society, India, and also the Festival
Director, is also the Chief Producer of the Films Division
which organizes the Mumbai
Festival, He will address a press meet at
the Media Centre at 12.30 p.m. about the special features
of MIFF 2008. Later in the evening, over 500 schoolchildren
from ten schools of the city will present cultural programmes
at the open air Lalita Kala Thoranam.
|
about not involving
filmmakers from south India, she denied this and said the
records spoke for themselves. The presence of members from
Andhra Pradesh in the selection committee also belied this.
But she stressed that the issue was one of good cinema and
not of north or south. Asked about the absence of film stars
at the Festival, she said the orientation should be to get
good filmmakers of children’s films and not stars. She
wanted that filmmakers should on their own feel that they
need to participate in the Festival. Entertainment and infotainment
was the basic right of children and should not be denied,
she concluded.
“Children must have Right of
Expression”: Kishan S.S.
Most parents do not ask children what they
would like to be. They just tell them to become a doctor or
an engineer. Children must have a Right of Expression. I stand
by it,” says nine
year old Kishan S.S, perhaps the youngest film director in
the world.
Speaking at press conference about his film
“Care of Foot Path”, Kishan said “I thought
that children would see the movie and get motivated to go
to school”. The film is about a street child who gets
interested in learning and by sheer grit and lots of hard
work gains education.
Kishan had to take care of all aspects of
filmmaking. He lived and studied the real life of street children
for ten whole days and was sufficiently moved by their condition.
That is why, he says, “I have dedicated my film to the
underprivileged.”
He and his producer Shylaja Shrikanth said
the subject is grim and there is no place for colourful depiction.
There is a message “but only as an undercurrent’,
he stresses.
But clearly, Kishan is not the normal nine-year
old. He has become the youngest director in the world to make
a successful film. He says “Today, a father takes the
child to a movie of his liking that has violence and action,
and the mother to films full of sentiments and emotions. But
adults in India, unlike those in the West, do not go with
a child to watch a children’s movie.”
- Anil Ekbote
|
