Children's Film Society, India

he excitement and the smiles on the

faces of children attending the TInternational Children’s film Festival and

the fact that they are learning something at

the same time bring great satisfaction, the

Children’s Film Society, India, Chairperson Ms

Nandita Das and Chief Executive Officer

Sushovan Banerjee say.

Ms Das said at a press meet here that the aim

was to ensure fun films that served as an

alternative to the sordid programming that

children were forced to on television whose

remote was in the hands of the elders. Films

that appeared to be preaching were not

preferred, though all films taught something.

The children – especially those from smaller

towns – were learning so much at the Festival

and language appeared to be no barrier at the

workshops. She said all the theatres in the city

were packed.

Meanwhile, she released a set of five DVDs

containing three films each from the archives

of the CFSI. She said that the CFSI had 250 films

in its library including some acquired films.

Films made by CFSI were also being dubbed in

other Indian languages with the help of a

Pune-based organization.

Children’s film festivals were successful only if they had films that

were not preachy and provided something spectacular, says Nandita

A peep into the Wonderous World of Cinema

Hyderabad www.cfsindia.org Issue: 6 November 19, 2011

Mr Banerjee said the CFSI had restored 21 old

films as part of the National Heritage Mission

of the Government. Seventeen or eighteen of

these were marketable and therefore these

would be brought out in DVDs.

The number of DVDs would be doubled in the

next phase and all the films would be out in

DVDs within two or three years. The DVDs had

been brought out in collaboration with

Shemaroo. They were priced at Rs 399 for

three films in one DVD, Rs 299 for two films in a

DVD or Rs 149 for single films in a DVD.

Reacting to a question relating to content

suitable for adults in some of the films, Ms Das

and Mr Banerjee said that children today know

more about life than we had known as young

people. Each screening committee had

educators amongst the members and they

had approved these films.

Both the Chairperson and the CEO referred to

the cultural programmes which were on at

the Lalitha Kala Thoranam and NITHM and

said a large number of children were

attending these programmes.

Referring to the new venue for the Festival at

Shilparamam, Ms Das referred to the

Workshopsl

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Press Meet

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Open Forum

Film Making- Dining Hall, 2.30-5.30 pm

Script Writing

Art Gallery, 2.30-4.30 pm & 4.30-6.30 pm

Film Appreciation

Shilparamam Garden, 2.30-4.30 pm

Animation

Shilpakala Vedika basement, 4.30-

6.30pm

Puppet Making

Art Gallery, 2.30-4.30 pm & 4.30-6.30pm

Media Centre, Shilpakala Vedika,

Mangesh Hadawale, Director of the film

‘Dekh Indian Circus’ -11.00 am

Shyam Benegal, Director ‘Charandas

Chor’ -12.30 pm

Kerala Minister for Social Welfare Dr M K

Muneer -3.30 pm

Vishal Bhardwaj, CFSI Executive

Committee member - 4.30 pm

at Sampradaya Vedika, 4.30 pm

Bridging Differences through Children’s

Cinema

Gajju’sProgramme today

environment which was very conducive for

festivals of this kind. Referring to complaints

about projection, Mr Banerjee said that these

were mostly of a technical nature and had

been overcome.

Festival Coordinator Ms Monica Wahi and

Shilparamam Special Officer Mr G N Rao also

addressed the meet.

Children's Film Society, India

What I recommend for today…..and why

Screening Schedule

Date Time Name of Film Mins Age

19th 9:30 am Dekh Indian Circus (Watch Indian Circus) IC 106 10+

12:00 pm Fancock 4 LD 4 6+

Scream V Halloween Night LD 4 6+

Tellu (A Boy who Applies Oil) LD 15 6+

Kabhi Socha Hai (Stop and Think!) LD 2 6+

Nishadam (The Savage) LD 9 6+

Thulyam (Equal) LD 7 6+

Dhanam (Wealth) LD 7 6+

2:30 pm Taryanche Bait (Island of Stars) IC 101 10+

Wonder Land, Rock Heights, Shilparamam

Date Time Name of Film Mins Age

19th 9:30 am Charandas Chor (Charandas The Thief) CW 155 10+

12:30 pm In a Heartbeat SC 8 10+

Land of the Fireflies SC 24 10+

2:30 pm Chandani und ihr Elephant

(Chandani-The Daugher of the Elephant Whisperer) CW 88 10+

Dream Land, Rock Heights, Shilparamam

CI-Competition International IC-India Competition SC-Shorts Competition LD-Little Director CW-Children's World IFC-In Focus China

Date Time Name of Film Mins Age

19th 9:30 am Digari (The Other) CI 84 10+

11:30 am De Sterkste Man Van Nederland (The Strongest Man in Holland) CI 80 13+

2:30 pm Les Contes De Lanuit (Tales of the Night) CI 84 10+

Magic Land, Rock Heights, Shilparamam

The Other

The Strongest Man In Holland

Director: Mehdi Rahmani | Iran / 2010 / Col. /

84 mins

A young boy and

his soon to be

stepfather come

close to each

other when they

are forced to go on a trip to the capital city,

Tehran, as the two must work together to sell a

van.

Director: Mark de Cloe | Netherlands / 2010 /

Col. / 8o mins

Searching for his

father with the

h e l p o f t h e

school’s tallest girl

Minke, the short

statured Luuk learns that strength comes in

many different forms as he gains confidence.

Director: Michel Ocelot | France / 2010 / Col. /

84 mins

A girl, a boy, and

an old technician

get together every

evening in a small

d e s e r t e d m o v i e

theatre and conjure up new forms of

entertainment – acting, dressing, drawing or

anything catching their fancy.

Director: Mangesh Hadawale | India / 2011 /

Col. / 106 mins

Ghumroo does not care for studies, and his

Tales of the Night

Watch Indian Circus

sister Panni wants

to go to the circuls.

But they realize

the problems of

life as the mother

spends time maintaining their open-air

desert home and the father who is a mute

works long hours on a road crew, suffering

many indignities in silence.

Director: Mehdi Rahmani | India / 2011 / Col. /

4 mins

Fancock and his

friend Trinity are

sent to Planet

Earth to save it

f rom the Ev i l

Olympus. One day as Trinity is in school, the

evil spirits arrive.

Fancock 4

Children's Film Society, India

Scream V Halloween Night

A Boy who Applies Oil

Stop and Think!

The Savage

Director: Shantanu Sharma | India / 2011 /

Col. / 4 mins

W h a t

f r i g h t e n s

me is not

the obvious

monster, but

the unknown, the fear that the mind is not in

control, that there is something out there that

nobody knows about.

Director: Ajinkya Hukerikar, Aastha Jain, Maitri

Dave | India / 2011 / Col. / 20 mins

‘Te l lu ’ , who

applies a lot of

oil on his head,

i s a l w a y s

teased in school

by a group of bullies. So he decides to join the

gang, ignoring his best friend.

Director: Ashwani Bandhu, Aman, Aditya

Kumar Singh, Prashant Mohan, Harsh Anand,

Soni Mahajan, Simran, Tanya Sharma,

Khushboo Hanjura, Bhupender Singh, Nitin

Kaushik, Mohd. Irfan,

Rajbala Singh,

Bab i ta Pun ,

Akshay Kumar,

Pooja Kumari,

Alka Sharma,

Sonam Chauhan,

Sonia Singh, Nisha Singh, Sabila Khan |India /

2010 / Col. / 2 mins

Stop and Think and Plant a Sapling!

Director: Vishnupriya, Himachandran, Nincy,

Anaka, Aasmi India / 2011 / Col. / 9 mins

Nobody wants to

have anything to

do with ten-year

o l d K u n j u m o l ,

living with her grandmother, who suffers from

AIDS: even her classmates who were once her

friends.

Director: Lekshmi, Anju Mol, Liya Elizabeth,

Jwala Parameshwaran, Shaharbana | India /

2011 / Col. / 7 mins

Saadhana’ grandmother and mother fuss

over her brother and ignore her as she is a girl.

But her father encourages her and things

change when she wins a prestigious

scholarship.

Director: Bismi, Aishwarya, Athira, Aswathy,

Durga | India

/ 2011 /Col. /

7 mins

A prospective

groom and his

family visit Aswathy’s house and ‘approve’ her.

Her parents must now mortgage their house

to arrange for the hefty dowry.

Director: Kiran Yadnopavit | India / 2010 / Col.

/ 101 mins

Shreedhar is a clerk

and lives a happy,

content life with his

family in a beautiful

Konkan village till they visit Mumbai and his son

insists on staying in a five-star hotel. The father

says he can do so if he stands first in the class.

Director: Shyam Benegal | India / 1974 / Black

& White / 155 mins

Equal

Wealth

Island of Stars

Charandas The Thief

To get out of a

tricky situation,

Charandas makes

five vows to his

guru: he would

never eat in a gold plate, never lead a

procession that is in his honour, never become

a king, never marry a princess and never to tell

a lie. But life has something else in store for

him.

Director: Karolina Lewicka | Iceland / 2010 /

Col. / 8 mins

A lonely girl who

has no friends

w a t c h e s h e r

classmates play

from a distance, but

overcomes her fears when she sees a little boy

being bullied by two older boys.

Director: Haroon Habib | Pakistan / 2011 / Col.

/ 24 mins

A 15 year old boy

co l l ec t s s c rap

near an industrial

area by taking

away the cycle of an old man who is sleeping.

But one day the cycle disappears.

Director: Arne Birkenstock | Germany / 2009 /

Col. / 88 mins

Chandani mahout

father in Sri Lanka

gives her the charge

of an elephant calf

Kandula and she

learns to look after elephants from the ranger

Mohammed. But then Kandula is taken away.

In A Heartbeat

Land of the Fireflies

Chandani-The Daugher of the Elephant

Whisperer

“Take Movies to districts and villages too” states MP Madhu Yashkihildren are India’s future. This is very

important for them. I’m very happy for

the festive atmosphere around.CHearing those words, coming from Member of

Parliament Mr Madhu Yashki Goud, I felt so

proud that I was being noticed even by a

Parliamentarian.

Addressing a press meet, he said: “The most

important thing is Hyderabad has become the

stage for such a grand festival. Being the IT

hub of the state, it plays host to all the guests,

delegates and students across the globe. The

Government is doing all it can to promote and

encourage the filmmakers.”

He expressed his gratitude to the organizers

for inviting him as a representative of

Parliament, Urging for extension of the

Festival beyond Hyderabad, he added, “It is

difficult for students from districts and villages

to come to the city. So I have recommended

that the Chief Minister should select some of

the best films and send them across the

districts for screening.”

He was happy that the Government was

promoting message-oriented films.

He admitted that he was a big movie buff and

was looking forward to seeing these films.

-Sneha Nemali

Children's Film Society, India

Edited by B.B. Nagpal on behalf of the Children’s Film Society, India, Films Division Complex, 24, Dr.G.D. Marg, Mumbai-400 026.

Design Seshu Kumar MVV, Satya T, Guru J

Photos Kotnis Murali Krishna, Chillam Charla Suresh Kumar, D.S. Chakravarthi, D. Yuva Raj

Designed & Produced by Efforts, 11-6-872, Red Hills, Lakdikapul, Hyderabad-500 004. www.efforts.co.in

Festival Office CFSI, Camp: Shilparamam, Madhapur, Hyderabad.

Every child can make a film because every child can express

re these the filmmakers of tomorrow, or

have they already taken the first steps Ato fame? If anything, everyone who

heard those young geniuses was convinced

that every child can make films because every

child has something to express.

The young entrepreneurs included some

whose films are featured in the new

competitive section ‘Little Directors’. And

though some elders also featured in the Open

Forum on Little Directors, it was the little

masters who dominated the discussion.

The children talked about pre-production,

production and post-production of their films.

They talked about their problems; and the

experience, support, and inspiration that

guided them. The films in the section are

‘Fancock 4’ by Ansh Mehra and Shrey Gupta,

‘The Adventure of Eddie and Curt’ by Sumer Rai

and Shiven Naraat, ‘Hamari Duniya’ by

Ramashankar Gupta and Ashur Mochan,

‘Subbu’s Noodles” by Sanjana Abraham,

“Nishadam” by Vishnu Priya, “Thulyam” by Lea

Elizabith Teddison, and “Dhanam” by

Aishwarya Raj.

Interestingly, all the films deal with serious

issues from conservation of water, social

issues like dowry, gender equality, AIDS

awareness and bullying to light hearted issues

about making friends and school. The courage

to choose such subjects shows the

determination of these kids to bring about a

revolution in the existing scenario.

Asked about the hurdles they faced while

shooting, it became clear that child actors

being non-actors new to camera, convincing

parents, and being disciplined and organized

were common problems. The main setback

was in understanding the technicalities and

working on the script. The struggle continued

from scratch to the very end. They agreed that

having better equipment may have helped,

but asked ‘What is the use of such equipment

when we do not have the required

experience?”

Some said they drew inspiration from

Subhash Ghai’s films. They were grateful that

their teachers encouraged them on seeing

their talent.

The schools provided most of the facilities like

an audio-visual room and dubbing suite.

Ben, a young director from Chicago, said that

passion verges on desperation and films wary

with culture, quality, passion and curiosity.

Dr Mohan Agashe who is chairing the Little

Directors jury said “News is fiction but movies

are real”. He suggested that every school of

India should teach artwork of camera.

Director-music director Vishal Bhardwaj said,

“What do I say when these kids are coming up

with such wise answers. If we had also been

exposed to such opportunities, we would

have been at par.”

- Swathi Rama & Smrati Thakur

Distributors do not come forward to project children’s cinema

hile commercial f i lms have

distributors lining up to take these Wfilms, children’s films have to face

difficulties in trying to find buyers.

Directors Majeed Gulistan and Vinda Pg of

“The Bird Catcher” and “The Lotus Pond”

respectively said they had prepared

themselves for facing failure as far as

commercial release of the films was

concerned as very few distributors were

interested to take up children’s films. They say,

“We lack the encouragement. We make films

with so much of love and care, but it all drops

when you have no distributors.”

Majeed Gulistan said “This is a children’s film

with a difference. It has adventure, thrills and

it is also an insight on the ongoing

environmental issues. We collected students

from various schools and conducted

workshops and the talent they showcased is

amazing.” The film talks about the impact of

globalization on ethnic culture. The film’s

producer Dhirubhai said, “There are two main

reasons: I love children. They are guidelines

for tomorrow’s today. I wanted to display the

present environmental issues too.”

The Director of “The Lotus Pond” said, “I wrote

the script in 2001 and the hunt. It is because of

Nitin Kumar that I am here today. As a student

of photography, I had attended the 13th

edition of this film festival and fell in love with

films instantly. It motivated me to create films

of high standard.” Nitin Kumar said he had not

cared about commercial success when he

agreed to finance the film.

- SN