A Part of the Bouquet

IANS, "Serious films, poor organisation mark festival" - Thai Indian - Bangkok, Thailand
Saturday, September 13, 2008

New Delhi: Amid a few groans and grumbles about the event not being organised well, Open Frame, Public Service Broadcasting Trust’s (PSBT) international film festival, went on to its second day Saturday in the capital.

Attracting a sparse and mostly young crowd, many of whom were students of film making, the festival focused on films dealing with a range of issues on conflict.

Spread over a period of eight days, the festival will showcase nearly 55 documentary films from countries like the US, Britain, Palestine, Sweden, Pakistan and Israel - touching upon a range of issues such as gender, globalisation, development, Kashmir, media and war.

A film maker whose film was screened in the evening of the first day of the festival, however, complained that the affair was not well organised.

Not wishing to be named, she told IANS: “My film was scheduled late in the evening yesterday (Friday). To begin with, there weren’t too many people visiting the festival because of poor advertisement, and then there was such a long break before the film that most people went away.”

For others, however, the line of films was impressive and they are eagerly looking forward to watching them.

“I am looking forward to watching the films on Monday, because there are a host of them on Kashmir - an issue I am really interested in and plan to make a movie on someday,” said Aarti Kaul, a college student.

A number of workshops, like a film appreciation workshop, discussions on subjects like revisiting caste reservation and contemporary sufism are also a part of the bouquet.

Visit PSBT Public Service Broadcasting Trust at http://www.psbt.org/