Thiruvananthapuram: As many as 220 films, including those in the curated and homage categories, will be screened in the 13th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK), which will kick start from December 9. The festival was cancelled last year due to the Covid pandemic.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the festival at 6 pm on Thursday. Minister for Culture Saji Cherian will preside over the inaugural function at Aries Plex in the capital city. However, the screening of the films will begin at 9.30 in the morning at AriesPlex Audi - 1, with the French short documentary 'Ain't no Time for Women'. Directed by Sarra El Abed, the film shares the anxiety and worries of teenagers' on democracy in France.
The festival, organized by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy (KSCA), will be rolled out at Aries Plex SL Cinemas’ Audi 1, 4, 5, and 6 screens. Films will be screened in different categories such as long documentary, short documentary, short fiction, non-competition Malayalam section, international fiction, international non-fiction, animation, and music video. The festival will be held till December 14.
The fiction and non-fiction categories will have a national-level competition, while the campus segment will only have a State-level contest. The festival will screen six films of Ranjan Palit, the documentary filmmaker, and cinematographer, who has been selected for the Lifetime Achievement Award in the 13th IDSFFK. The Ranjan Palit retrospective films in the festival include Voices from Baliapal, A Magic Mystic Marketplace, In-Camera, Eleven Miles (directed by Ruchir Joshi), Jashn-e-Azadi: How We Celebrate Freedom (directed by Sanjay Kak), and Forever Young.
The Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art in Berlin had recently done a digital restoration of 'Eleven Miles', and the original restored version will be screened for the first time in India at the IDSFFK. The delegate fee in IDSFFK for the public is Rs 400 and Rs 200 for students. The festival will pay homage to India’s foremost film critic and prominent curator Rashid Irani and eminent director, producer, and screenwriter Sumitra Bhave.
The offline registration has already begun at the delegate cell functioning at AriesPlex SL Cinemas.
The media cell of the 13th edition of IDSFFK started functioning on Monday.