Kim Longinotto’s ‘Pink Saris’, which follows the women vigilantes of ‘Gulabi Gang’ and its leader Sampat Pal, will be the inaugural film at the Film Festival for Award-winning Documentary, Short and Animation Films (Mini MIFF) beginning in the city on November 9.
Longinotto’s 96-minute film takes an up-close view of Sampat’s militant group which was formed in Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh to deal with atrocities against women. The British documentary film maker is known for making films on female victims of oppression and discrimination.
The three-day festival is being organised by Kerala Chalachitra Academy, Films Division of India and Kerala University Students Union. The selected films are those that won awards at the Mumbai International Film Festival this year.
“These films, apart from winning awards, were noticed for their content and idiom. Mini MIFF is part of our effort to take them to viewers across the country,” said Beena Paul Venugopal, artistic director, IFFK.
A total of 19 films will be screened as part of the festival. Film maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan will inaugurate the festival at University Students Centre at 5 pm on November 9. Six films will be screened on the same evening, seven on Day 2 and six on the final day on November 11.
The highlights on Day 1 include Pratik Basu’s short film ‘One Two’ which pans the camera on an overnight bus journey. Two men, co-passengers, confide in each other and share memories of two women who affected their lives. The viewers realise that they are talking about the same woman who emerges as two different characters through the accounts of the men.
‘Unni’, an eight-minute animation film, made by a five-member student team of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. The film won the best student animation film award at the ASIFA India awards for excellence this year.
The movie revolves around the plight of Unni who is caught between the overbearing expectations of his parents and his own inadequacy to match up to a demanding world.
‘Mahasweta Devi - A Close Up’, a 39-min short film directed by Moni Bency J J, is the second in a trilogy. While the first part followed the writer-activist on her journeys to the remote tribal belts of the country, the second part tries to come to grips with her formidable self.
In ‘Dreaming Taj Mahal’, a Pakistani driver is unable to get a visa to travel to India. His biggest dream is to see the Taj Mahal, a dream that is enmeshed in the haywire of strained diplomatic relations between the two countries. The film is directed by film maker and editor Nirmal Chander Dandriyal.
‘The Decisive Moment’ is a 30-min short film from Hong Kong directed by Wong Wai-kit. An elderly photographer is brought back into the news business after many years. But, holding the old man back from taking good news photos are memories of a traumatic on-the-job episode from his past.