Documentary and Short Film Festival begins Friday

The sixth edition of the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK), rolling out in the city on Friday, has in the competition section 66 films, including Malayalam, vying for the honours in the short documentary, long documentary, animation, campus film, music video and short fiction categories.

 The short fiction section has ‘Alfie’, directed by Thomas Mathai, which won accolades at Cannes. The 26-minute film is woven in Freudian eroticism, sexual deviance and biblical notions of baptism. The surreal tale runs through a dream-like experience. In the same section comes ‘Lust for Life’, which drew inspiration from Irving Stone’s biographical novel of the same name. It takes the viewer through the relationship between a maverick painter and the models who posed for his works. The director is Aromal T.

 Through the eyes of a farmer, ‘Oru Kuttanadan Karshakan’ (A Farmer from Kuttanad) brings out various facets of Kuttanad, a land tucked away between the sea and the backwaters. The magnificent beauty of the Venice of the East is presented in arresting frames by noted cinematographer Santhosh Sivan.

 A number of films in the ‘long documentary’ section pan the camera on the different facets of human emotions. If the frustration and disappointments faced by women get unveiled before the viewer in Nishitha Jain’s ‘Gulabi Gang’, Nakul Singh, in his film ‘Immoral Daughters’, talks about the fight for love and resistance which breaks the pillars of a feudal society. Empty, crowded, real, imagined, urban, liminal and nostalgic, the Spandan Banerjee-directed ‘To-Let’ is about physical spaces.

 If you are looking for films that speak about social issues, the festival has in store many such. Films discussing the unique ID project, the encroachment on the indigenous population by the real-estate corporates and several issues related to globalisation can be watched here. 

 The films will be judged by a jury panel consisting of documentary film-maker M R Rajan, Italian film critic and journalist Giona Nazarro, writer and film-maker Kesang Tseten from Nepal, professional screenwriter Anjum Rajabali from Mumbai, Tamil film director Vetrimaaran and production designer Prakash Moorthy.

The five-day event will come to a close on June 11.

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