20TH ICFFI ALL SET TO ROLL OUT RED CARPET FOR INDUSTRY STALWARTS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE

Friends, in my previous blog, I had shared details about the 20 th Golden Elephant – ICFFI, being held from November 8 to 14 at Hyderabad. Throwing more light on one of the largest and most colourful children’s film festival in the world, I would like to reiterate that the 20th Golden Elephant aims to screen high quality International children’s cinema which children may not get to see anywhere else.

No doubt, the festival promises to be a grand event and aims to attract large number of children audience along with film personalities from around the world. In 40 years, over 20 editions, this festival has only gone from strength to strength.

The last three editions for which I have had the privilege of being the festival director has seen exponential growth in terms of curatorial content and participation of best films from every nook and corner of the world. From an average of 300 to 400 entries in previous editions, I would like to inform you that while the 18th ICFFI in 2013 received 894 entries from various countries, the following edition on 2015 received 1204 entries and now, for the 20th ICFFI, we have received a phenomenal 1402 entries from 109 countries.

At CFSI, our major focus is to make this a truly international film festival for children and by children by conducting training and workshops for children in film making. This festival will consider the children’s view points and create a universal theme from children’s interest as well.

Around 40 Festival Directors of various International Children’s Film Festivals and children’s film makers from across the world will converge at the 20 th ICFFI. My main aim in taking children’s films made in India to global audience is also to bring revenues and market the content.

My efforts during the previous editions of ICFFI to make it a truly international festival has borne fruit. And, my recent travel to the world market, where I attended various film festivals and my meetings with top film makers and festival directors has added to getting more people to the festival.

I was invited to attend MIPCOM, the global market for entertainment content across all platforms, and MIP Junior, the world’s showcase for kid’s programming, held in the French town of Cannes.

Attending the BFI London Film Festival was another fruitful visit, where I met some of the well- known film makers and festival directors and had discussions for partnerships for Golden Elephant and other areas of collaboration. At the Cinekid Festival at Amsterdam, I had the opportunity to meet Sannette Naye, former CEO of Cinekid. Our mutual interest in children’s films and discussions thereof led to Naye agreeing to work wholeheartedly for enhancing the creativity of children in India through the medium of films especially the rural children, taking the Little Director’s initiative to logical conclusion. I also had a fruitful interaction with the current CEO of Cinekid, Floor van Spaendonck.

Both my earlier and recent visits have resulted in congregation of the global stakeholders including film makers and festival directors at this year’s do, which will be a maha sangam for children’s content.

Look forward to sharing more such successful partnerships and collaborations from across the globe, which helps in making top quality children’s films as well as marketing them aggressively on international platforms.

Jaipur children unleash their creative talent through Open Forums and Workshops at NCFF

It was a day to remember, not only for me, but for some of the best, young creative talents of Jaipur.

Curtains came down on the National Children’s Film Festival (NCFF) with a fitting finale with a bunch of enthusiastic and creative children, who participated in the film making workshop, making a 1.5-minute film ‘My Friend’.

The Jawahar Kala Kendra, which was full of life with children from various schools taking part in the Open Forums, Workshops and Kids Carnival for the last three days, proved that, cinema, no doubt, is a powerful medium through which we can effectively inculcate family values among children and make them aware of social issues.

The Open Forum on the third day of NCFF, which had an august team of speakers, deliberated on the theme “How has the various media and communication platforms covered various issues related to children? What more and different things can be done in this direction.”

The observations and discussions by eminent panelists/speakers in the Forum were very interesting.

Prof. Dr. Sandeep Sancheti, President, Manipal University, Jaipur stressed on the need for enhancing and promoting the thought processes and creative talent of children. Anshu Harsh, Founder of Rajasthan International Film Festival made an important observation that children of today are aware of the good and the bad, and the media should keep this in mind.

Kalyansinh Kothari, Secretary General, Lok Samvad Sansthan felt that it’s the responsibility of all of us to bring about a change in the society while the media just highlights the need for a particular change. Rajendra Bora, Former Chief of Dainik Bhaskar, said that media is an effective medium to educate children, but it also depends on how we make use of it.

Manan Suman Chaturvedi, Chairperson, Children’s Commission, Rajasthan Government; Daksh Garg, Founder, Blabworld; Prof. Ujjwal K Chowdhury, Media & Education Consultant; Former Dean, Symbiosis & Amity Universities; Prof. Avinash Tripathy, film journalist including myself were present at the Open Forum.

Earlier during the day, noted film producer Ashok Kaul conducted a film making workshop for children, where he taught them the tricks of film making. He also introduced them to cinematography, direction, handling the camera and even acting skills. It was a wonderful sight to see those curious children learn the art of film making.

CFSI will edit this short film and showcase them at the National and International Children’s Film Festivals in the future.  Looking at the success of both the editions of NCFF, I am eagerly looking forward to hold the children’s film festival at district-level.

The three-day National Children’s Film Festival, held in the Pink City of Jaipur, has further strengthened our resolve to reach out to more and more children in different states and districts through children’s films and to bring out their creative talent in the art of film making.

I take this opportunity to thank my colleagues at CSFI and the officials of Government of Rajasthan, who, in the last few months, worked day and night and supported us in making this film festival a grand success.

Children exhibit joy and surprise, indulge in knowledge-sharing on the second day of NCFF 2016

This time again, the National Children’s Film Festival (NCFF) proved that the audio-visual medium has a tremendous impact on children. The second edition of NCFF, being held in the pink city of Jaipur, is witnessing attendance of children to packed houses at all 10 theatres across the city, where Children’s Film Society, India (CFSI) is screening 40 children’s movies.

In addition to screening movies, CFSI has also organised Open Forums, Workshops and Kids carnival for children at the Jawahar Kala Kendra, on all the three days.

As part of this, for the first time, I had the privilege of interacting with child achievers in the Open Forum on the theme “Child Achievers: Sharing their journey, and their views on children in films and media.”

These children, in the age group of 8 to 15, had achieved successes in their own might and were winners of several International and National awards. They shared their experience and successes with the children audience and their parents present at the Open Forum

Day 2: CFSI chairperson Mukesh Khanna, CEO Dr Shravan Kumar with the young celebrities from Jaipur at our open forum

It’s very interesting to know more about these young achievers. Manan Sood, also known as the ‘Google Boy’ surprised everyone with his general knowledge. This six-year old feels that cartoon films, among children films, have an impact on children.

Nine-year old writer-dancer Lachi Prajapati is a bundle of talent. Generally known as the ‘Golden Girl’ she says she remembers 15 chapters of Srimad Bhagwadgita. She has also been dancing since she was 2.5 years old. This vibrant, young talent is also a poet and has also written a lot on the Beti Bachao Campaign. At the young age of 9, she has also written a book titled ‘Sit a While With Me’.
One could not take their eyes off from the mesmerising Kathak dance performance by Jayati Mukherjee who belongs to the Jaipur Gharana.

Similar to Manan Sood, Jyotika Chatnani too could tell the capitals of many countries and of all the states in India with ease. She also remembered the names of all the presidents of India.
Another talented achiever Ratika Sharma introduced her scientific talent to the audience. She also spoke about a Scientific project, which could give relief to states like Rajasthan from water-scarcity.

The children also participated in the Animation Workshop conducted by noted international and Indian award-winning animation filmmaker Dhvani Desai. The curious children listened in rapt attention when Desai explained to them about the history of animation and the various techniques of animation including the 2-D and 3-D. Later, the children were also treated to an animation film.

The success of our film festival and its programmes stand testimony to our efforts to nurture the creativity among these bright and talented children.