I sat glued to the screen of my phone for hours at a stretch. My roommate grew concerned as she saw me weep with half an hour or so. When she had had enough she snatched my phone and yelled at the top of her voice, “Will you stop watching these family dramas after all!” To her surprise she found a documentary on child brides in India playing on my phone. As she heard the story of a teenager rescued by the documentary filmmaker, she couldn’t hold back her tears too.
Every year hundreds of filmmakers document the reality of the world they live in, of the world we live in through the medium of films. Every year hundreds of documentaries are produced round the globe sometimes showing a mirror to the society we are in, sometimes reveling in the beauty of nature, and sometimes simply recording all that there is.
India is known to produce a huge number of commercial and non-commercial films each year. Keeping the tradition alive and bringing documentary films to the mainstream, the country hosts several documentary film festivals every year giving space to this form of art that is yet to get its due. Some of them like Jaipur International Film Festival, Mumbai Film Festival are quite popular one. There is also film festivals especially organized for Students segment. Now a days, with the popularity of Film Studies courses in India, several students are trying their hands on short films to learn the art and make career in mainstream Film Industry. The Student Film Festivals in India are rapidly growing in several cities across India.
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VIBGYOR
Held annually in the Thrissur district of Kerala, VIBGYOR is an international short and documentary film festival in Kerala with films revolving around the themes of identity, gender and sexuality, human rights, nation state, environment. Organized by VIBGYOR film collective it takes place at the Sangeetha Nataka Akademy in Thrissur each year and is the largest alternate film festival in South Asia.
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Jeevika: Asia Livelihood Documentary Festival
A Centre for Civil Society initiative, Jeevika was started in 2004 as part of the Jeevika Campaign working for the livelihood freedom for street entrepreneurs. An attempt at bringing to the public eye issues regarding the livelihood of both the rural and urban population living in poverty, this festival has made a mark in short span of time.
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Mumbai International Film Festival
The Mumbai International Film Festival is dedicated to documentary, short and animation films. As the name of the festival suggests, it takes places annually in Mumbai and is organized by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. In a journey of thirty long years this film festival has successfully brought together filmmakers from all over the world, giving them a brilliant platform for the exchange of ideas.
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Orma Film Festival
Organized by Kerala Information and Public Relations Department in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala in 2004, the Orma Film Festival is one of the most sought after documentary film festivals in the country, designed specifically to showcase documentaries from around the country.
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SIGNS Film Festival
Held last in association with Kochi-Muziris Biennale, the SIGNS Film Festival was initiated for screening short and documentary films. Organized each year by FFSI – Keralam founded by Satyajit Ray, the organization is one of the five chapters of the Federation of Film Societies of India.
Filming Indo is the fixer, Line Producer and documentary film maker support to International film makers, who wants to transform their vision into reality by picking several development, social and economical issues in India. We provide all types of media support in India, Arrange interviews with not only private company experts but also with Indian government officials and diplomats. We can arrange permits of restricted places including all the archaeological sites in India. We manage Public Relation services to International clients in India. Apart from all these, we also support with translation and interpretation work in all foreign languages. We have native as well as Indian speakers.
You may get in touch on our email info@filmingindo.com and we try to reply back within 12 hours.
Author: Deeksha Vats