THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Movie buffs flocked in large numbers to watch documentaries and short films screened at the 14th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) on Sunday.
The venues – Kairali, Sree and Nila – witnessed a good turnout of delegates. Participating in an interactive session, writer Paul Zachariah said Chelavoor Venu is the stalwart of modern progressive values in Kerala.
Zachariah said Venu accepts anything new with open arms and remains active in political and cultural activities without seeking financial gains. He was speaking at a function held in connection with the screening of the documentary ‘Chelavoor Venu-Jeevitam Kaalam’.
The documentary, screened after the session, depicts Venu’s cultural and political life. The documentary starts on the day Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. The unwritten history of Kerala’s alternative visual culture is explored throughout the film. Jithin George Xavier, a young director, believes that gender and sexual minorities should not be discriminated against.
He said they should not be judged harshly but a culture formed to accept them as equals. He was speaking during the ‘Meet the Director’ programme. Director Intila Saha said the animated film ‘Pon’ was created using her own drawings rather than software.
Sukanya, the director of Keni, who filmed ‘Mullukurumar’s Life’, said the eating culture of each country is governed by availability. Other young directors Arun Dileep, Nitin John, Sudhir P Y, Monesh B Kumar and Praveen Selvam attended the session.
Films to be screened
War-centric movies following tales of survival, Mantas Kvedaravicius’s ‘Mariupolis’ and Loup Bureau’s ‘Trench’ will be screened on Monday. Lithuanian director Kvedaravicius’s film, which follows the lives of everyday citizens in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol as the threat of war with Russia escalated, will be screened at Kairali at 8.30 pm.
The films under the package titled ‘iTales’ are Rajshri Deshpande’s ‘Distorted Mirrors’, national award-winner Savita Singh’s ‘Mulberry’, Madhumitha Venugopal’s ‘Spaces ‘, Kutti Revathi’s ‘The Inner Face’ and Pooja Shyam Prabhat’s ‘Why? Maa!’. The movies, which were shot on iPhone, will have their screening at Nila from 11.15am. Bureau’s ‘Trenches’, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and Denis Dobrovoda’s ‘The Cathedral’ will be screened at Kairali and Sree theatres, respectively.
The special screening of the movie ‘Andrei Tarkovsky, A Cinema Prayer’, Nilita Vachani’s ‘Diamonds In A Vegetable Market’, and ‘The Red’ will also be screened on the fourth day of the festival.