Budding filmmakers make a mark

The jam-packed auditorium of Sri Ram Centre and Culture resounded with the cries of students whenever their favourite films appeared on the screen at ‘First Frame 2013’, the fifth edition of the International Students’ Film Festival.

Budding filmmakers were taking their first steps. The focus was on a wide range of issues such as man’s evolution, government apathy to puppetry artistes of Kathputli colony in Delhi, the connection between music and spirituality and conservation of water.

On the first day, 16 films were screened. The two-day festival, organised by the Madhu Bala Institute of Communication and Electronic Media (MBICEM), opened with Dwand, directed by Abhilash Vijayan of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, in both Hindi and Chattisgarhi. The film’s about a poor village in Chhattisgarh, the fight between Maoist rebels and armed forces. The story is told through the eyes of a barber and an official of the paramilitary force deployed in the state.

Lightless Chambers by Parthivi Verma of Salwan Public School, Gurgaon,
depicts the struggle of domestic workers migrating from different states to big cities in order to earn a living.

International entry Lipstick directed by Carla Simon Pipo of London Film School, UK, deals with a child’s awareness of death. Adults are of the view that children can’t understand death, and use euphemisms to explain it.

Prof M B Julka, Festival director and director of MBICEM, said, “The USP of this year’s festival is that students of senior classes of schools having media studies in their curriculum, participated. Entries were accepted online for the first time.”
The big attraction on day one was an interactive session with the team of Placebo – The Film and the launch of its second promo. Abhay Kumar, director of the film, said, “For a crowd-funded film which was shot 60 per cent on a handycam, now has Anurag Kashyap as its executive producer. The promo is a testimony to the journey ahead.”
Running parallel to the film screenings were the students’ photography exhibition and the spot mobile filmmaking competition. Participants had to shoot mobile films and
submit them within an hour.

On the second day, there were more interesting stories for the audience. Broken Strings of Marionette by Deepak Jain of MBICEM is based on the life of folk artistes in Kathputli Colony of Shadipur. The film highlights their complaints against the government which has sold the colony in which they live, besides other problems.
Another entry by the London Film School, Born Positive, is a documentary about three youngsters born with HIV. The actors kept to the real voices of the three. Blame, anger and ignorance are some of the issues that were spotlighted.

FTII’s Solitary Soul, directed by Jithin Das and Garshia, a heart-rending film is the story of a visually impaired girl, who owns a dog that guides her wherever she wants to go. This film drew a lot of attention.

Aruna Vasudev, filmmaker and founder-president of Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema, said: “I was the chief guest at the first edition of the festival. Being back here feels great. The passion of young student filmmakers is reflected clearly in the films and the festival.”