THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Those who threaten and try to keep social activists and writers at bay through their naive threats should be answered with courage, said Cultural Minister A K Balan.
He was delivering his presidential address at the closing ceremony of 11th edition of International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) here on Tuesday.
“The rational way to deal with such threats in social and cultural realms is to react to them without getting frightened. Renowned personalities like M T Vasudevan Nair, filmmaker M M Basheer, and Prabha Varma have received such intimidations, and the state has reacted to them. Likewise, the author of the novel “Meesha”, S Hareesh, who faced such threats, should be able to react without being frightened as well”, said the minister.
“We should be proud that Oscar jury considered a documentary which received the best long documentary award in our fest. Similarly, the immense participation of delegates in the fest has increased the prominence of the fest,” Balan said. He also hailed the organisers for making the five-day fest a success. He urged the State Chalachitra Academy to give priority to the documentaries made in the state in the coming years. Academy vice-chairperson Beena Paul requested the government to increase the days of the festival in the coming editions.
Speaker Sreeramakrishnan, who was the chief guest, said that the participation of youth in the fest is encouraging. “Nowadays, we are facing a crisis of Cultural Alzheimers. So this fest is an exhibition of a cultural exchange to defend the Alzheimer’s. We want more documentaries to uphold the values
of the democracy,” said Sreeramakrishnan.
Mayor V K Prasanth, Chalachitra academy chairman Kamal, Vice-chairperson Beena Paul, Academy secretary Mahesh Panju also spoke at the occasion.