`Feature films are like fast food & fairy tales'

Features films are like fast food and fairy tales that are often told to children. For me, documentaries are the real films,"said Armenian filmmaker Harutyun Khachatryan, whose three documentaries are being screened at the Bengaluru International Film Festival. He doesn't like films where there are actors. “I generally make films on what I see around,“ he added.
Khachatryan, who has been the festival director for Golden Apricot, which is the Yerevan International Film Festival in Armenia, has made 14 films (including feature films) that have won acclaim at film festivals around the world. “My films deal with problems the way I study them. In that way, I am a film sociologist. I am in India for the first time and happy to see Biffes screening documentary films,“ Khachatryan said.
As many as 24 documentaries are being screened at the festival and, organisers say , the response has been very good. Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage said he could see Biffes growing every year and giving more space for documentaries is a good sign. Commenting on the challenges of a documentary filmmaker, Vithanage said, “As a filmmaker you have to say what you feel like saying.“ He pointed out how his film Death On A Full Moon Day was banned by the Sri Lankan government claiming that it would discourage youth from joining the army .“I took the case to the Supreme Court to have the film released.“
Kannada director Soumyananda Sahi, whose debut documentary Small Things, Big Things was screened at Biffes, said his film deals with the education system, RTE and the way art can be a medium of teaching.“I have tried to see education and teaching from the point of view of children. The entire film was shot within a school on the outskirts of Bengaluru,“ he added.