Calling Thiruvananthapuram a city jam-packed with cine-halls is no hyperbole. Its red carpet reception for star movies knows no bounds, though at a time, the world of avant-garde and offbeat cinema remained out of bounds in this place of ardent cine buffs. Cutting across this stereotypical fabric came the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) two decades back in the misty days of December.
People who alienated themselves from this ‘strange’ phenomenon, over the passage of time, evolved — youth in particular—- and made it a part of their cine viewing habits.This yearly wait for good cinema was cut into half with the arrival of the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) in June 2008.
Still from Angry Buddha
The IFFK and its miniature version, the IDSFFK now belong not just to the city folk. The evolution made its impact on one of the most sought-after film extravaganzas of the country as well. Every connoisseur of good films across the globe make it a point in June and December to backpack to Thiruvananthapuram to take home the memories of a great film-going experience down south. At the ninth edition, the IDSFFK shows that it is growing.
About 1,500 delegates will catch a melange of 204 Indian and international short movies and documentaries in the three-tier Kairali-Nila-Sree theatre complex for five days, till June 14. Under the impeccable organisation of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, the IDSFFK undeniably matches up to the standards of the IFFK.
Still from Ave Maria
“Short movies were at first part of the IFFK. Later on, it was decided to conduct a fest exclusively for those and the IFFK began showing only long movies. For the inagural edition, it was called a video festival and from the second edition onwards, the title of IDSFFK was bestowed upon it,” says Deepika Suseelan, programme manager (festivals), IDSFFK. This year’s focus is on wildlife. So, on all four days of the festival, movies related to wildlife will be screened at the venues.
Global appeal
The highlight of the ninth festival is a package of movies of stop-motion animation maestros — Stephen and Timothy Quay who are brothers. “The films come in 35 mm format. Special arrangements are in place at the festival venue to screen the 35 mm prints,” says Deepika.
Still from Durga
The package is touring India from the British Film Institute (BFI). Noted English-American film director Christopher Nolan is the curator of the session. It contains five noteworthy productions of Quay brothers and an animation film of the curator — Quay— themed around the makers. Anamorphosis, In Absentia, Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies, Street of Crocodile and The Comb are part of the package.
Regarded as the oldest short film festival in the world, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen in Germany has a slice of it for the IDSFFK. The festival has completed 62 successful runs. An Ton Kaun, Chimpanzee, Das Offenbare Geheimnis, Dawit and Shift are the movies under this category. The focus session has movies of Chinese documentary film-maker Wang Bing and Kashmiri documentary maker Sanjay Kak. Twelve films — six from each are being screened. In addition, a bunch of 15 Latin American shorts, 12 international fiction and nine international non-fiction are arriving this edition before the audience.
Desi delight
Beej, a session curated by Marathi filmmaker Umesh Kulkarni is probably going to be a one-off chance for viewers to catch a glimpse of the first brush of many renowned names in Indian cinema with their debut outings. Beej is derived from the Hindi name for seed and it showcases the germination of first movie-making experience. Avasesh (Girish Kasaravalli), Call It Slut (Nishtha Jain), Ika (Raam Reddy), Just That Sort of a Day (Abhay Kumar) Pistulya (Nagraj Manjule), Shor (Neeraj Ghaywan) and Six Strands (Chaitanya Tamhane) are up for screening.
Padma Shri-winning Manipuri filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma’s seven movies are shown under retrospective section. It’s woven with Koro Kosii, Manipuri Pony, Meiti Pung, Orchids of Manipur, Sanghai: The Dancing Deer of Manipur, The Maram and Yelhou Jagoi. Other than screening, the IDSFFK does its bit to nurture the film knowledge through two workshops — one on digital filmmaking by documentary making duo Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl and a Nikon DSLR video making workshop.
