THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the first time, Institute of English of Kerala University, is conducting a short film festival ‘Claps’ on February 24 and 25 on the campus. Selected movies from universities and campuses would be screened at the festival. The festival will be inaugurated by film director Shyamaprasad on February 24. The festival is organised by ‘Institute Talkies’, the film club of the Institute.
On the first day, there would be the screening of internationally acclaimed short films after the inaugural session. Followed by this, there would be a talk by Meena T Pillai, author and faculty member with the Institution of English on the topic ‘Malayalam Cinema: On scripting the Malayali’. Under the institute package, two films will be screened: Thoottal and Sera Sera, made by the students of the Institute.
On the second day of the festival, film critic V Rajakrishnan will deliver a talk on ‘Short film as a genre’. Selected short films will be screened in the competition section after that. Six or seven films are expected to be screened in this category. ‘A pestering journey’, the award winning social documentary directed by K R Manoj will be screened next. The film is centred around the two pesticide tragedies that happened in the post independent period.
After the screening, an interactive session with the director is also arranged. Chief guest at the valedictory function, director T V Chandran will give away the prizes for the winners. The best film will be selected by the jury comprising C S Venkiteswaran and K R Manoj. The team that bags the first prize would receive a prize money of Rs 10,000.
Short films not exceeding 20 minutes can be submitted. Last date for submitting the entries is Friday.