Ship of Theseus, Yellow, Closer, Two friends among the 40 films which will be screened at the ‘First International Film Festival for the Persons with Disabilities 2015'

Mahesh Limaye’s 'Yellow' is the opening film of the festival which will be held in Delhi from December 1st to 3rd, 2015

Delhi, November 3, 2015: The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India announced the shortlisted 40 films to be screened in the ‘First International Film Festival for the Persons with Disability (IFFPD), 2015’. National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) has collaborated with (DEPwD) to organize a unique three-days film festival for persons with disabilities, which will be held at Siri Fort, New Delhi, from 1st to 3rdDecember, 2015.



The National award winning Marathi Feature Film, Yellow will be the inaugural movie of the festival. A total of 40 films comprise of 16 short films, 14 documentaries and 10 features (7 fiction and 3 documentary films).

Selected Feature Films (Duration 1-3 Hours)

·      Ship of Theseus - Anand Gandhi

·      Yellow - Mahesh Limaye

·      Chotoder Chobi - Kaushik Ganguly

·      Haridas - GNR Venkatesh Kumaravelan

·      The Window - Nikolay Nikolaychuk

·      The Beasts - Leo Basilico, Nicolas Longinotti, Pablo Rodriguez Pandolfi

·      Birds of Passage - Olivier Ringer



Documentary features



·      Algorithms - Ian McDonald

·      Shattered Minds - Jade Bryan

·      Ishaarey - Annelies Kusters



Selected Documentary Films (Duration 20-60 Mins)

·      Accsex - Shweta Ghosh

·      Indelible - Pavitra Chalam

·      The New Girl in Class - Amrita Dasgupta

·      Closer  - Meghna Gulzar

·      Useless eaters - Luneburg 45 - Moritz Jakobi -

·      Some in,Some out - Olga Arlauskas

·      Deaf Women Told Me - Marie-Andree Boivin

·      The Steps of One Hand - Kioumars Samadi Tari

·      Goonga Pehlwan - Vivek Chaudhary,Mit Jani

·      Draw Hard - Jon Nix

·      It's Cricket No? - Sudhir Aggarwal

·      Eyesight Without Eyes - Hayk Ordyan

·      Rehearsal of Tolerance - Ebrahim Saeedi nejhad

·      The Silent Chaos - Antonio Spanò



Selected Short Films (Duration 5-20 Mins)

·      Deafness - Khachik Vasilian

·      Avi,La Petite Ballerina - Susan Santha Kerns

·      Glimpse of Heaven - Diego Robles

·      Feet in Sand - Subhash A V

·      The Predators of Transylvania - Julia Kolenakova

·      If I Don't Lose, I'll Lose - Jean St Clair

·      Two Friends - Nunna Sravan Kumar

·      HELPLESS - Seokwon Han

·      CODA - Melissa Mostyn

·      Crossing The Divide - Cathy Heffernan

·      Strangers - Brian Duffy

·      Fingertip - Basile Vuillemin

·      A Slice of Life - Lisa Kielmansegg-Kaan

·      Some girls are bigger than other - Anja Kavic

·      Pan - Véronique Duys

·      The Big Decision - John Finn





The 40 selected movies are an entertaining mix of a dozen Indian movies with regional flavours, as well as International film entries in English, German, Spanish, Russian, Armenian, Korean among the many others. The films have been meticulously chosen to create an atmosphere of awareness in the Festival and shedding light on the different categories of disabilities.



The distinguished curators for IFFPD 2015 are Sudhir Mishra (Filmmaker), Sameer Modi (Producer/Distributor short films), Arfi Lamba (Producer/Actor), Brahmanand Singh (Producer/Director), Svetlana Naudiyal (Independent Consultant for Festivals), Satish Kapoor (Director, ‘We Care’) and Satyen Bordoloi (Freelance Journalist).



The Call for entries initiated for IFFPD 2015 by NFDC saw a total of 541 national and international movies being submitted in the three main categories, Feature Films, Documentaries and Short Films.



The conditions for the festival entries specified that all films should be by and about people with disabilities that explore their lives and encourages discussion on the diversity of human experience.



IFFPD 2015 will felicitate the Best Director, and Best Film in each of the 3 categories of Films with cash awards, with the First and Second Runner Up receiving trophies and citations from the Department. The following awards will be presented:



·      Best Film (Fiction Feature) – Rs 3 lakhs + Trophy + Citation

·      Best Film (Documentary-Feature) – Rs 2 lakhs + Trophy + Citation

·      Best Film (Documentary) – Rs 2.5 lakh + Trophy + Citation

·      Best Film (Short) – Rs 1 lakh+ Trophy + Citation

·      Best Director (Feature) – Rs 2.5 lakh+ Trophy + Citation

·      Best Director (Documentary) – Rs 1.5 lakh+ Trophy + Citation

·      Best Director (Short) – Rs 1 lakh+ Trophy + Citation





At the press conference held in Delhi on November 2nd Shri Lov Verma, Secretary, DEPwD, briefed the media persons about how the festival was conceptualized by the department to honour the contributions of the persons with disabilities on the occasion of International day of Persons with Disabilities – which is commemorated worldwide on 3rd December, every year. He dedicated this film festival, in recognition of the spirit of the persons with disabilities and the festival will show case cinemas that open our world to their mind space, and sensitize them on issues relating to disabilities.



The Secretary also briefed that IFFPD won’t be just another Film Festival as the Department will also be conducting different workshops on Day 2 of the Festival. The theme for workshops will include Children’s Workshop, workshop on film directing and screen writing etc.



Joint Secretary, DEPwD Shri Awanish Kumar Awasthi, highlighted the objectives of IFFPD 2015 with an interactive presentation and emphasized that the Film Festival will go a long way in sensitizing public about issues faced by PwDs in their social life. Continuing further, he added that Inclusivity, Accessibility, Education and Technology were the wheels on which the motive of empowering PwDs will roll the much-needed change in the mindset of society. The presentation was followed by the screening of two short films which will be part of the IFFPD 2015.



Speaking on the occasion, Managing Director NFDC, Ms Nina Lath Gupta expressed her happiness in partnering the Department for this first-of-a-kind Festival conceptualized by DEPwD. Speaking on the role NFDC plays in promoting Good Cinema, she emphasized on the importance of cinema in a dual role – being the mirror of the times we live in and as one of the most effective awareness tool in the right hands.

 

The shortlisted films are attached for your kind perusal and information as annexure.