COIMBATORE: A team of people involved in tribal welfare in Coimbatore district has initiated a film screening movement named 'Koome' (Koome means owl in Irula language) for the children in the Anaikatti hills.They have been screening feature films and documentary films, which reflect the lifestyle of tribal communities and they hope that it will improve their knowledge towards their community.
Odiyan Lakshmanan, a tribal activist and one of the volunteers of the movement said, "It will be a good experience for them to know about the cultures of various tribes through the films. We have started screening the movies as an attempt to make the tribal children aware about the bond between them and the forest.Following the screening, there are discussions about the movies."
"Recently, we screened the Oscar-nominated documentary, 'The Elephant Whisperers' at Thoovaipathi tribal village and the children shared the stories of how their interact with the elephants," he said.
They started screening the movies in October 2022 in the name of 'Koome' and completed 10 screening sessions in different hamlets in Anaikatti hills. On Saturday, the screening was held at Jambukandi tribal village. With the support of independent filmmaker Arun Karthik, they are collecting films from across the world for screening.
Another volunteer R Gowrisankar, a school teacher, said, "Cinema is a powerful medium for learning. Unlike earlier days, most of the tribal children today are alienated from their environment and lack understanding about the forest. The application of technology and education has given them a good change. We try to make them understand their bonding with nature through cinema. We have also planned to introduce world cinema to them soon," he added.