ViBGYOR Film Festival

ViBGYOR Film Festival, held every year in Thrissur, Kerala, celebrates the vagaries of identity and the richness of its embodied diversity in the Festival of Short and Documentary films. The four-day Film festival invests not just in the banquet of films of value and sense but strives to make the event a rich visual and intellectual experience in interfacing with filmmakers, activists, peoples’ movement leaders and academicians from as divergent streams of life and activities.

The Second Edition of ViBGYOR was held from 10th to 13th of May 2007 at the Sangeet Nataka Akademy Campus, Thrissur. ‘Festival to the People’, a parallel venue in Pananchery Panchayath, & Focus Theme of 2007 “Earth” were the major specialities of ViBGYOR 2007.

Objectives

• To show case socially relevant short and documentary films made in the last two years all over the country and abroad.

• To create a wider space for films on social issues.

• To work as a space for interaction among filmmakers, activists, youth and professionals and general public.

• To expose the Indian filmmakers, film students and activists to International films and issues.

• To inform, educate, inspire and motivate social concerns among filmmakers, activists, youth and professionals and general public.

Background

The inaugural edition of ViBGYOR Film Festival was held from February 22-25, 2006 in Thrissur. With the initiative of Chetana Media Institute (Thrissur), Nottam(Kerala) and Abhivyakti Media for Development(Nasik), this first edition of VIBGYOR was organized with the help and participation of a number of organizations and institutions. Kerala Chalachitra Academy, Kerala Sahitya Academi, Kerala Sangeetaha Nataka Academy, Kerala Lalitah Kala Academy, Dept. of Public Relations (Kerala), Dept. of Tourism (Kerala), C-DiT, CEE(Bangalore), INSAF, CenSE, GAIA and also a number of film societies in Kerala were part of organizing this festival. Thrissur Corporation and Thrissur District Panchayat were involved as the main supporters of this festival. This festival was a logical continuation of the Film Festivals, Small Films in a Smaller World of February 2004 to Gargi Women Film Festival of May 2005, organized by Chetana Media Institute earlier with other organizations and institutions.

Two Hundred films were screened and four awards were given away in two categories – documentary and short fiction in the first ViBGYOR Film Festival. The Competition section at national level for Documentaries was based on the theme ‘Women Frames’. Non-competitive section included national and international short fiction, documentaries, music videos, animations and spots based on the theme ‘Identities and Diversity’.

The Festival began with a national conference on ‘Identities and Diversity’, in which Dr. Kancha Ilaiah delivered the Keynote address. In the evening Mr.Lasse Naukkarinen from Finland inaugurated the festival. On 23 rd evening there was a special event where the representatives from various people’s movements addressed the various aspects of ‘Water’, the theme of the year and the screening of films on Water package was inaugurated. The Closing Ceremony was on February 25th, in which Padmavibhushan Adoor Gopalakrishnan was the chief guest and he presented the awards. Forty filmmakers from all over India and close to a thousand delegates attended the festival.

The festival also witnessed an attempt by the Hindu right wing organization to impose cultural censorship. They objected to the screening of the music video ‘Vandemataram-a shit version’ and wanted to stop the festival alleging that the films shown were anti-national/patriotic and derogatory to the national pride.

Commentary

It was a very challenging festival which dared to show many unconventional and socially committed documentary films. It was also a platform for the socially oriented film makers to screen their films without any external impediments.

Notes

www.vibgyorfilm.com