‘Bagging’ the delegate identity

‘Bagging’ the delegate identity

POOJA JAYAN

The month of December sees Trivandrum flooded with people from every nook and cranny of the state to celebrate the festival of films, the IFFK.  In the sheer spirit of the festival men and women would be seen rushing from one theatre to the next sashaying their IFFK bags. The bag is a proof that you too belong to the much sought after festival of Trivandrum. Holding it close to your body with the smug look of being a ‘film worm’ you arrive at the movie hall but have you ever thought of the effort behind its making.

  The magical hands that created the festival bags are those of a group of women who run ‘Alankar Cloth Bags’ near Kattakada. They are members of Shishiram, a Kudumbasree unit. Their product range from baskets, small sachets for jewellery to  shopping bags. The unit was started seven years ago and this is their sixth year in the film fest. Since they got the first work of IFFK in 2006 there has been no looking back and this time the unit has bagged a whopping order for 10,000 bags. Finishing the work at right time at the right time is their forte which helps them win more orders from different parts of the state.

  The training program conducted by Kudumbasree in 2005 at Kozhikode has made them self dependent women who till then had only the tag of homemaker to identify themselves with . “We have supplied materials for the Women’s Commission, seminars conducted in museum premises, AKG centre and so on but IFFK is the most rewarding”, said Bindu, a worker in the unit while printing logos on new bags.

  Many models were shown to the authorities and IFFK director Priyadarshan selected the model for this year. This year’s bag is black in colour with an off-white logo on it and there are some notable differences in length and width too compared to previous years. The design for the logo was given by the festival authorities. The bags are made from a net-type material and the quality of cloth used is better than last year’s.

  The order for the bags was given in mid-October and the new bags were to be delivered by the end of November. Each member of the unit had to make about a thousand bags within a short span of time and the rains added to our troubles while drying the printed material, said Girija, the Secretary of the unit.

  Our unity is the factor which has led to our successful strides in the handbag business said another worker Ehiyamma with a smile.

       

A forum for delegates

A forum for delegates

Remya Nair

Neha C N

In the light of valuable experience of the last 15 years, the delegates of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) has formed a community named Delegate Forum, which is absolutely a new venture. The group is anxious about the facilities provided for the delegates by the Festival organizers. Their demand is to provide better facilities for the delegates.

  According to Shanavas Khan, the executive member of the Delegate Forum, the “so-called film community” has a feeling of untouchability towards the common people. And there is also lack of transparency in the organization of IFFK. That’s why the issues like the “inclusion rejection” problem arise. The group is questioning these attitudes of the Film Academy.

  Their demand is to increase the participation of delegates in the organizing committee of IFFK. The accommodation, canteen and urinal facilities are major problems for the delegates. Transportation is also a big problem. “We could borrow the facilities IFFK organizing committee provides in the sector of transportation, accommodation and canteen facilities” said Shanavas Khan. The forum is also against the additional charge imposed on late registrations.

  Their protests against the increase of charge stirred up conversations and debates among the film buffs.

  The forum is planning for active involvement in future film fests.

IFFK: Action starts today

IFFK: Action starts today

The wait with bated breath is finally over! As the festival starts rolling today, the city of Ananthapadmanabhan is all set to welcome the ten thousand delegates who will throng the streets of the city for the next eight days. Organized by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy on behalf of the department of cultural affairs, government of Kerala, the week-long fiesta is a celebration of sorts for movie buffs and will screen around 200 films from various countries.

  The Chief Minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandi will inaugurate the festival at Nishagandhi auditorium, Kanakakkunnu at 6 in the evening. Minister of forest, wildlife, sports and cinema K.B. Ganesh Kumar will preside over the function and the renowned Bollywood actress Jaya Bachan will be the chief guest. The inaugural function will be followed by ‘Destiny’s Dice’, a twenty three minute long cultural performance. The show is conceived and directed by eminent film maker T K Rajeev Kumar.

  The Chinese film ‘Under The Hawthorn Tree’, directed by Zhang Yimou will be this years’s opening film. This is the debut screening of the film in India.

  The films screened at the festival have been put under 14 categories. Arab cinema, Best of FIPRESCI, DEFA Films, Homage films, Indian cinema now, Jury films, Kaidan horror classics, kicking and screening, Malayalam cinema today, Philippine cinema, retrospectives, Contemporary master in focus: Semih Kaplanoglu, World cinema and competition films are the divisions.

  The international jury, headed by Australian filmmaker Bruce Beresford includes Philippine director Jeffrey Jeturian, Turkish filmmaker Semih Kaplanoglu, French director Laurence Gavron and Indian filmmaker Rahul Boss.

In the retrospective section, films of eminent directors Adolfas Mekas, Nagisa Oshima, Robert Bresson, Theodoros Angelopoulos, Yasuzo Masumura, Djibril Diop Mambety, and veteran Malayalam actor Madhu will be screened.

   The competition section this year consists of 14 films from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

This is the 16th edition of the IFFK which was initiated in Kozhikode in 1996. Hundred films were screened at that festival. This year features almost double the number.

Passion for films bring them together

Passion for films bring them together

Priyanka E Nair

The Film Festivals always make the students come together with one common interest –the passion for films. The large chunk of these student delegates at IFFK is media students who aspire to be a part of film fraternity. They take this as a golden opportunity to rub shoulders with the technicians in the film industry they adore.

  Savithri, a student of third semester, Mass Communication & Journalism said  “It is the first time I am attending the IFFK, the rare collection of films in the Indian Cinema now section. Another film I am longing to see is Mani Kaul’s- ‘Uski Roti’ (Our Daily Bread)”. Some students are unable to attend due to the clash of dates of IFFK 2011 and other engagements. Bhagath Bala, a BVMC student at Mar Ivanios college is disappointed as he could not participate in this year’s festival, as he is right now doing internship. “I could not participate in this IFFK. I have taken part in last two IFFKs. I perceive it as a platform for exploring world cinema.”

  Sajitha, a Calicut University student says “It is an opportunity of a lifetime to get to see films from various parts of the world. Because of our examination schedule, I cannot attend it. I am very sad to miss this opportunity.” Students from many colleges under the University of Calicut are also taking part in the IFFK 2011.

  “This is my first IFFK. I am too excited to get an exposure to the world of cinema as I am a film lover”, says Vishnu, a B-tech student.

  A first year student of MCJ, Nimisha said “It is a rare opportunity to see various films from around the world like Arab cinema, Philipine cinema. Also we  get a chance to meet the Directors of these movies, a great chance indeed.”

  It is the student community which makes the film festival dynamic and active. But due to hectic academic activities like exams and assignments  in December, large chunks of student community are not in a position to attend the festival. It’s   high time that the academic community of the state rescheduled their calendars to let their students take part in the biggest meaningful festival of the season.

IFFK 2011, Special Tabloid from DCJ

    IFFK 2011, Special Tabloid from DCJ    

To download IFFK Tabloid Click Here...

FIPRESCI to offer the best

FIPRESCI to offer the best

A

n exclusive package of the years IFFK is the FIPRESCI (short for Federation Internationale de la Presse Cinematographique- an International Federation of Film Critics)  films, a package of films which had won the FIPRESCI awards in various festivals. FIPRESCI, the professional association of film critics found in 1930 in Brussels, Belgium, has members from 50 countries worldwide and has initiated the award for “the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests.”

            The Seven films inc.uded in the section is an analysis of the tastes and the changing face of the world cinema. 'Clay Bird (Matir Moina) from Bangladesh', the debut film  by Tareque Masud', is about a boy who is sent away by his father to madrasah, much to his mother’s dismay and was based on the director 's own experiences as a child at a madrasah during the violent civil war between a poorly armed population and the US-backed Pakistani military forces .At the Cannes Film Festival in 2002, the film atained the International Critics’ award (FIPRESCI) for its “authentic, moving and delicate portrayal of a country struggling for its democratic rights”

  Australian director Steve Jacobs’ film ‘Disgrace’,a screen adaptation of the acclaimed 1999 novel by Nobel Prize winner J.M.Coetzee, has John Malkovich as a disgruntled Cape Town University professor David Lurie whose life falls apart after he has an impulsive affair with one of his students. In the aftermath of a vicious attack on the farm where he took refuge after resigning his job, he is forced to come terms with more than his ‘disgrace’.

  The French film ‘Of Gods and Men’ by Xavier Beauvois portrays the lives of eight French Christian monks, who live in harmony with their Muslim brothers. Chang Dong Lee’s Poetry is a fascinating film which shows how one can gain new moral and social awareness by the wonders of personal creativity. ‘The Day I Was Not Born’-the German drama is about a woman who discovers that she was adopted by the people she thought were her real parents. It's a stoic movie about stoic people, their silences, and the price they pay for those silences, but the choked emotion of the ending hits you hard.

            The legacy of sexualized violence is the chief generational inheritance in Claudia Llosa's Golden Bear-winner The Milk of Sorrow. Sebastien Pilote’s ‘The Salesman’ centered upon Marcel Levesque –a car salesman who takes great satisfaction in the ritual of persuasion is also a debut feature which elegantly applies restraint and precision to mount subtle, quotidian moments into an emotionally crushing story.

Switch off your mobile phones, please!

Switch off your mobile phones, please!

LITTY SIMON

“Kindly switch off your mobile phones or keep them in silent mode”, reads out the C-DIT student Sidhart as part of his preparation for comparing the festival. This mandatory statement is heard by delegates before the screening of every film.

Grooming session for anchors

  Fifty greatly talented and dynamic souls are pepping up themselves with the curtains set to go up on December 9th for the 16th IFFK. The anchors have to introduce the director and their films besides making mandatory announcements without offending the delegates.  The vibrant team was selected at the end of a four day workshop conducted by artists Parvathy, Annapoorna and Jyotish.

  Over the years the number of aspirants to the anchoring team has been on the increase and so the juries have had a tough time selecting the Masters of Ceremony.

  The workshop included a series of training sessions that helped the students in developing their soft skills. Various breathing and voice modulation exercises equipped the team to improve their presentation skills .Ice breaking and other interactive games drew them out of their discomfort zones.

  

  “It is a privilege to be part of such a grand function and we are eagerly looking forward to give our best’, says Akhila from Mar Ivanious College .Raiza from all saints’ college said “We are here to explore our potential and this is a great learning experience”.

The silhouette of camaraderie: the film before every film

The silhouette of camaraderie: the film before every film

Gokul  P

Movie viewing culture owes a lot to the shadow puppetry of our ancestors in this God’s own country. Members of the older generation still recollect their childhood memories at temples and special occasions where they watched mythological characters projected by the flickering of oil lamps. The science behind movie projection also owes much to this most traditional method of projecting images on screen to tell stories. The master director of Malayalam, G Aravindan, recognized this bondage between puppetry and cinema which inspired him to design the logo of International Film Festival of Kerala with a lady character from the shadow puppetry. Here is another set of youngsters following their predecessor by making the signature film of 16th IFFK based on the same theme of shadow puppetry.

  ‘The Silhouettes  of Camaraderie’, a 32sec film is a journey through the history of visual language which had evolved in different parts of the world and have distinctive characteristic features of respective cultures to which they belong. It is a salute and a tribute to those great cultural entities representing the urge of humankind to make images for expressing ‘the inexpressible’ and communicating it with other fellow beings. “The film is a blend of visuals comprising 3D and 2D images”, said Bijoy Balachandran, a member of the Blueberries Animation team and the director of the signature film. Bijoy Balachandran is an artist, designer and film maker. His film “In Search Of” premiered at the international short film festival “Signs” conducted by the federation of film societies of India. He has to his credit several projects in various fields such as graphic designing, hologram production, signature films etc and has also worked as the course co-ordinator (3D animation) for Indian Human Resource Development Authority.

  Compositing work was done by Binesh G.S, a technical and creative expert in the field of 2D and 3D animation. He was the head of the department of Texturing andTechnical direction, Trine Entertainments Ltd, Malad, Mumbai and ED- Ventures E- Learning Pvt.Ltd, Secunderabad.

  Suvarna who did the illustration and texturing of the film is a critically acclaimed painter and graphic artist . She has also worked as an illustrator for children’s publications and as an art teacher at various schools. Research and script of ‘The Silhouettes of Camaraderie’ was done by Bipin Balachandran who is a creative writer, art historian and documentary director.  Editing and sound was done under the supervision of Praveen VR and the music score was done by ‘fly council’, a Thiruvananthapuram based music band.

  The challenge for this team of young artists was to portray the diversity in culture within a limited span of time. The popular mascot of IFFK, ‘chakoram’ or the crow pheasant takes a 32 seconds flight from the state’s own ‘Tholpaavakoothu’(original version of shadow puppetry in Kerala) to the wayang goleks and wayang kulets of Java through Arabia, Japan, Korea, Egypt, Greece, Indonesia and India.