‘SiGNS’ short film and documentary festival from Sept 28

KOCHI: The Federation of

Film Societies of India

(

FFSI

), Kerala, in association with the

Kochi Biennale Foundation

(KBF) will screen nearly 200 short films and documentaries in Ernakulam as part of ‘SiGNS’ short

film and documentary festival

.

The five-day event will commence on September 28 and will last till October 2. Noted director Kamal will inaugurate the event, to be held at

Ernakulam Town Hall

, on September 28 at 5.30pm.

The short films and documentaries will be shown in two different screens at the venue. Acclaimed documentary director Rakesh Sharma will deliver this year’s John Abraham Memorial Speech on ‘Times of intolerance, censored minds’, on October 1.

The 10th edition of the festival will also feature a retrospective on the works of Rakesh Sharma and Pramod Pati, a homage section to Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami , litterateur Mahasweta Devi and film-maker Bala Kailasam, a lengthy documentary series named ‘Director’s Pick’ , a package of documentary films from Africa named ‘Artists Cinema ’, a short fiction package curated by Premendra Majumdar and ‘Best of Insights’, a collection of award winning short films from Haiku film Festival.

“Short films and documentaries from 25 Indian languages will be screened under the Competition and Focus sections. Seminars and open forums with film-makers from around the country, will also take place on the sidelines,” said SiGNS festival director K R Mohanan.

A Jury led by Rakesh Sharma will chose the best short film and documentary for the John Abraham National awards. Other awards include ones for Cinema of Resistance and Cinema Experiment. Aspecial FFSI award for the best Malayalam short film and documentary will be adjudged by a jury comprising representatives from Kerala’s film societies.

“Contemporary arts and films are correlated. For the same reason, Kochi Biennale Foundation is much delighted to be associated with the festival,” said KBF Trustee Bonny Thomas.