KOCHI: The 11th edition of the SiGNS short and documentary film festival organised by the Federation of Film Societies of India will get under way at Ernakulam Town Hall on Tuesday. Renowned film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan will inaugurate the festival at 5:30 pm.
The five-day festival will be a tribute to Gauri Lankesh, renowned journalist who was shot dead by fascist forces in Bengaluru recently. Films will be screened in both competitive and non-competitive categories in two screens at the Town Hall from inaugural day. Houses with Small Windows, directed by Kurdish origin director Bulent Ozturk and Arin, directed by another Kurdish origin director Miskin Mujdhe Aarslan, will be screened as the opening movies. The directors, who presently live in London, have won several awards in the international film festivals.
The short and documentary films of Indian directors will be exhibited in both the competitive and non-competitive categories. Films Division’s Legends of Indian Cinema featuring documentaries and its two movies dealing with film history, Turkish movies in country focus category, Croatian short films, short films from 10 countries in International Window category, seven films in Resistance category, films selected by the jury and artistic director, Homage category featuring films of K R Mohanan and Chalam Bennurukkal, will be the main attractions of the film festival.
Acclaimed film historian and curator Amrit Gangar will deliver the John Abraham Memorial lecture at the film festival, which will be held from September 26 to 30, 2017. Veteran director PT.Kunhumuhammed will deliver the K R Mohanan memorial talk. As part of the event, various programmes like Open Forum and Meet the Directors will also be held. The award ceremony will be held on September 30 evening.