AHMEDABAD: The sixth edition of
`Chitrakatha'
, the week-long international student animation festival, began at the
National Institute of Design
(NID) on October 22. This is the tenth year of the biennial festival, fondly called `COWfest'. The theme of this edition is the collective cultural heritage of Africa and Asia.
Professor
Pradyumna Vyas
, director of NID, said animation is a strong medium for social communication and to disseminate information on heritage and culture. “India's original stories are a goldmine and our cultural diversity is an opportunity to create new thinking about animation. Chitrakatha now has a strong legacy and we are happy that it's identified among the top five student animation festivals across the globe by the
International Association for Animation Filmmakers
(ASIFA-Egypt),“ he said.
Vyas said that they will soon send a proposal for the formation of a Tribal Folklore Animation Research Centre at NID. “The upcoming NID at Jorhat will have special focus on reviving the stories of the North-Eastern states and taking them to the next generation,“ he said.
Shekhar Mukherjee
, the festival director, said NID's strong point is to amalgamating diverse elements and combining them to mainstream lesser-known art practices and traditions.
“We have 49 guest speakers, with Dr Gabriela Christen, dean of School of Art and Design, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, as the chief speaker.
Over the decade, we have kept the form pure by focusing only on student works.
We are happy that this time we received over 600 entries from across the globe of which 76 have been selected for screening at the festival,“ said Mukherjee, adding that the six best entries will be awarded on October 28.
The highlights of the festival will be a peek into the world of Asian and African animators, their stories and methods, how they interpret cultural heritage and shared practices. This time, the festival has an all-woman jury , the organizers said.
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