Thiruvananthapuram, July 29 (Agency) As many as 61 films are scheduled for screening on July 29, the fourth day of the 16th edition of the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK). Of these 13 films are vying for prizes in the three competition categories and five films by young filmmakers will compete in the campus film category. In the competition long documentary category, three hard-hitting films will be screened on Monday. Lalit Vachani’s ‘Kaidi No. 626710 Haazir Hai (Prisoner No. 626710 is Present)’ will be having its world premiere at the festival. The film is a poignant take on the interminable wait that becomes part of the legal system as it tracks a prisoner waiting for bail and his two friends who await his release. ‘Parama: A journey with Aparna Sen’ by Suman Ghosh is a cinematic portrait of ace filmmaker Aparna Sen’s life and diverse career. The film premiered at this year’s International Film Festival of Rotterdam. The third long documentary being screened in this section is ‘No City for Women’ by Rangan Chakravarty. The film, which explores women’s experiences of living and working in India’s millennium city Gurgaon, has been edited by two-time national film award winning editor Arjun Gourisaria.
Five films in the competition short documentary section and five in the competition short fiction will also be screened. All these screenings would be held at the Kairali theatre. Among the 61 films to be screened on Monday, there will be 10 Malayalam films, including the long documentary ‘Swami Anandatheerthan: Nishedhiyude Athmasakthi (Swami Anandatheerthan: Sanyasi and The Rebel)’ by Abhijith Narayanan. Delegates will also get a chance to once again see on the big screen ‘Final Solution’, Rakesh Sharma’s national award winning documentary on the 2002 Godhra carnage. IDSFFK will also be paying homage to two notable film personalities who passed away this year. Two films of Ruchir Joshi would be screened as homage to A M Padmanabhan, one of the pioneers of sync sound recording in India. Also to be screened is the investigative documentary ‘The Sweatshop of Wall Street’ by Sriyanka Ray, an Emmy award winning filmmaker and video journalist. Two documentaries by the Bedi brothers and two films in the African Shorts category would also be screened on Monday. All the 10 short films handpicked for the ‘Nagari: A bioscope for the city’ section would be screened in the afternoon at Nila theatre.
Apart from these, several other thought-provoking documentaries and short films will be screened as part of the Focus, International and Malayalam non-competition sections. From the delightful palette of eight campus short films competing for prizes at the 16th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK), five films will be screened on Monday. The films, spanning multiple genres, include ‘Mutton Cutter’ by Pramod Sachidanandan, which follows Miyani and her struggles with expulsion from home, relocation, loneliness, companionship and dating. ‘Hitham’ (The Choice) by Febin Martin is a deeply emotional tale of a couple going through many years of IVF treatments. ‘Phases’ by Jithin G explores the dynamic perspectives of men across different stages of life. ‘Society Barks’ by Vighnesh A Bhaskar is a reflection on the harrowing experiences of a young man who faces relentless bullying and abuse during his childhood. In ‘Dhwani’ (The Sound of Memories) by Namit Venugopal, a sound designer rediscovers captivating tales of ‘Bhoothathan’ through his mother and embarks on a journey to document them. All the films in the Campus category will be screened from 9 am onwards at the Nila theatre. Delegates at the 16th International Documentary and Short film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) will be able to watch the Malayalam documentary that brings to light the courageous contributions of Swami Ananda Theerthan, a social reformer from Kannur who worked lifelong against casteist practices.
‘Swami Anandatheerthan: Nishedhiyude Aatmashakti (Swami Anandatheerthan: Sanyasi and the Rebel)’ directed by well-known filmmakers Bindu Sajan and Abhijith Narayanan, will be screened at 11:15 am at the Sree theatre. The film is a passionate documentation of the revolutionary leader, who was inspired by Sree Narayana Guru to follow the path of social justice. Born Ananda Shenoy, he later accepted asceticism under the guidance of the Guru and became Swami Ananda Theerthan. Much of the memories and stories about him were relegated to oral histories until the two filmmakers decided to correct this historical lapse. Ananda Theerthan spent years working for the upliftment of dalits and other marginalised communities in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, even setting up a school for them. Having led many dalits to defy the practices of untouchability and denial of entry into temples, the leader was at the receiving ends of violent attacks multiple times. It is even said that it was Sree Narayana Guru who got him to wear saffron robes to lower the risk of physical harm. The documentary, which premiered at Bharat Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram in January this year, fills a gap in the history books and brings back into focus one of the important crusaders of social justice in Kerala.