THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Documentaries are more durable compared to the news which appear through the media, said Nandan Saxena, the national award-winning documentary filmmaker.
He was addressing a ‘Meet the Press’ organised as part of the seventh International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) at the Press Club here on Sunday.
“Though the media has the power to tell the stories of the marginalised sections of society, due to certain limitations they are not able to covey them fully.
“However the documentary filmmakers have the freedom to portray the subjects, which have news value, through their works,” he said.
Nandan Saxena said that is the reason which prompted him and Kavita Bahl to drop their job in media and to select a career in independent documentary and film making.
Their film, ‘Candles in the wind’ has been selected for the IDSFFK 2014.
The documentary film deals with life in rural Punjab, where the locals struggle as they re-negotiate the rules of engagement and the politics of domination in their bid to survive.
Filmmakers Sathish K who directed the movie ‘In Search of the Black God’, Gaurav Pathal (film ‘Jabal Bil Ays’), Ranjitha Rajeevan (‘Keli’) and Santhosh Peringeth (‘Kotti’) were also present at the press meet.
Interactive Session
An interactive session on ‘Challenges and Opportunities for Science Filmmaking in India’ was held at Hotel Keys here as part of IDSFFK on Sunday.
K P Madhu of National Institute of Science and Research said that scientists and filmmakers are disparate groups.
“Scientists are not interested in cinema and filmmakers are not interested in science.
“That is the reason why science films are not making the grade these days,” he said.
A presentation on ‘Story telling and science filmmaking’ was done by the Sivakumar, filmmaker and faculty member of LV Prasad Film and Television Academy.
Filmmaker Nandan Kudhyadi, Head of Forest Entomology in Kerala Forest Research Institute, T V Sajeev, faculty of AJK Mass Communication Research Centre - Jamia Milia Islamia University - Farhat Basir Khan were also present.
49 Films Screened
Around 49 films were screened in six sections on Sunday, the third day of the IDSFFK.
‘Namak pani’ (Salt water) which portrays the story of the six-year-old boy, ‘Non- fiction diary’, ‘A world not hours’, ‘The last edu’ were some of the popular movies which were screened on Sunday.
A workshop on documentary short filmmaking was conducted by Indian Documentary Foundation. Festival artistic director Beena Paul inaugurated the workshop.
Around 40 films will be screened on Monday at the Kairali theatre complex, among the Long - short documentary, Filmmaker in Focus, Homage, Focus on Middle East, International and Environment sections.