THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘Signs 2011’, the Indian Festival of Documentaries and Short Features for John Abraham awards, which has been on in the city sans any pomp or grandeur (or much participation for that matter), would conclude on Thursday. The five-day-long fest has screened nearly 220 short features, documentaries, animation films and campus films.
As the fest ends, it is the inaugural cinema ‘Nero’s Guests’ that has been widely appreciated by the delegates. A Marathi docu by Deepa Bhatia, it deals with the agrarian crisis in India and how mainstream media has refused to see the truth. It is Deepa’s first independent work, though she has left her imprint on many feature films as an editor. They include films like ‘My Name is Khan’, ‘Rock On’ and ‘Taare Zameen Par’.
‘Aval’ directed by Prasanth Kanathur, which is a short fiction in Tamil, also won much admirers. Manilal’s ‘Pranayathil Oruval Vazhthapedum Vidham’, a short fiction in Malayalam, and ‘Randu’, another short fiction by Sudevan P P, have been acclaimed among Malayalam works. Shiny Benjamin’s ‘Ottayal’, which is a documentary on Dayabai, a Malayali who works for tribals in Madhya Pradesh, has also been appreciated.
The ‘Campus Cuts’ category which was included for the first time, wherein works of Plus-Two students were included, has been promising, though not overwhelming.
Though funds were short and participation hardly impressive (when compared to the Documentary and Short film festival hosted by Chalachitra Academy), it could boast of the presence of a group of serious film lovers and amateur film-makers for whom the festival is often a reprieve and a solace.
‘’For people like us, who want to show our work to the world, Signs have been providing a major platform,’’ said Aadish, director of ‘Bark’, included in the fest. He had also directed the signature film for this fifth edition of Signs.
‘’Signs has been the motivation for the Academy to begin its short film festival independently. The participation is increasing each year,’’ said V K Joseph, Vice-Chairman of Kerala State Chalachitra Academy.
However, many film buffs are of the opinion that a little more publicity could have earned the festival more delegates. But with the Federation of Film Societies of India (Keralam) officials, who are the organisers of the festival, finding it hard to meet the expenses, Signs only has the promise of new talents to keep it going.
The concluding ceremony of Signs would be held at Kalabhavan on Thursday at 6.30 pm where the awards for best films in the competition segment would be given away by Finance Minister Thomas Isaac.
trivandrum@expressbuzz.com