THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kazhcha-NIV Indie Film Fest (KNIFF 2018) commencing on Friday presents a golden opportunity to all budding filmmakers and film buffs in the city.The second edition of the film festival, centred around the theme of 'Inclusion' will held at two venues in the city - Lenin Balavadi and Alliance Francaise de Trivandrum (AFT) from December 7 to 10. The festival will screen two documentaries and ten films in English, Bengali, Punjabi, Hindi, Tamil, Gaddi and Garo.
On-the-spot registration will take place at the respective venues for a fee of Rs 200.The festival will be inaugurated by Aligarh-fame filmmaker Apurva Asrani, who is a strong advocate for the rights of the LGBTQ community. Sangeeta Dutta’s 'Bird of the Dusk' which portrays legend director Rituparno Ghosh's struggle against gender definitions and sexuality will be the opening screening of the festival.
Other movies that will be screened over the four days are Kathputli, Manusangada, A Suitable Girl, The Gold-Laden Sheep and The Sacred Mountain, Namdev Bhau In Search of Silence, Pupa, Sayahnangalil Chila Manushyar, Mehsampur, Jonaki, Ma'ama and Garbage.
‘Script Lab’- a script development workshop conducted by Apurva Asrani, P F Mathews and Raghunath Paleri will also be organised as a part of the festival. "Out of all the entries received by the Kazhcha Film Forum, ten concepts have been shortlisted. At the end of the workshop conducted for these ten candidates, one script will be chosen to be developed into a feature film that will be financed through Kazhcha crowdfunding,'' says Hafiz Mohammad, an organiser.
Other programmes scheduled to take place include musical midnight discussions, speech series on contemporary social challenges, panel discussions, painting exhibition and interactions with the directors.