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Festival Director Kamal, Chairman, KSCA l Artistic Director Bina Paul, Vice Chairperson, KSCA l Executive Director and Chief Editor Mahesh Panju, Secretary, KSCA l Deputy Director (Festival) H Shaji l Deputy Director (Programmes) N.P Sajeesh l Executive Editor Rajesh Chirappadu l Associate Editor Nowfal N l Sub Editors Anil Kumar KS, Goutham V S, Rahul S, Ramees Rajai l Photography Vincent Peter l Design and Layout Sivaprasad B l Team Chandramohan, Jayakumar, Resmi Anil l Printed at Akshara Offset, Thiruvananthapuraml Printed and Published by Mahesh Panju, Secretary, KSCA on behalf of Department of Cultural Affairs, Govt. of Kerala l Email bulletindaily2018@gmail.com

Did Gauri’s death deepen your sense to re-sist the evident political oppression based on irrational ideologies, mainly Hindutva. If yes how? As a citizen and filmmaker.

I’ve always supported her views on fascism and brahmanical hegemony and have extend-ed solidarity with her works. I had plans to make a film based on the current politics of hate prevailing in our country that I’ve dis-cussed with Gauri before her death. But film-making requires certain logistics that has to come in line for the materialisation of an idea of which funding is an important factor.

Do you think it has become an obliga-tion for artists, filmmakers to be voices of political reformists in our present political scenario?

We saw Perumal Murugan with-drawing his novel. Recently in Kerala, writer Hareesh was forced to withdraw his novel. During my father’s time there were disagreements about what he wrote, there were arguments or dis-cussions to show dissent. As a journal-ist, my father (P Lankesh) expressed his opinions; he wrote of all the issues but there was no threat against him, no gunmen around him. But today the situation is different. Creative artistic voices are being repressed. Opinions are oppressed. Now we have threats of terrorist tones where some people de-clare to cut one’s head or hand for writ-ing or expressing opinions. This is not the Hinduism that we need.

Does this added obligation hold you back in the progress as a filmmaker?

Yes, the internal pressure always increases. When you’re writing a script or an article, the thought of ‘will it be questioned or censored?’, rises every time. We tend to involuntarily self cen-sor ourselves, which shouldn’t be the case. Earlier days it was about afford-ability to make movies that forms a barrier, now it is the politics that tries to constrain your artistic endeavours.

Goutham V S

Reliving the fiery memories of GauriAn interview with Kavitha Lankesh

Narendra Modi who is always vocal about development doesn’t seem to see the caste based and other ethnicity based discrimina-tion and atrocities that are on the rise in his home state Gujarat. Rampatar, the movie by Vivek Gopinath, is also the name of the Dalit community based in Gujarat who are being victims of social boycott, even when they are considered as ‘Hindu’. The hollow claims of development by Modi are built on atrocities inflicted upon Dalits and religious minorities.

Caste in Modi Land

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Iranian and Indian cinema have cer-tain common features which makes them distinct from the entire cinema culture that exists in other parts of the world. They have a distinct identity – both Indian and Iranian cinema. Indi-an cinemas were popular in Iran for a long time but we have a misconception that Indian cinema is only Bollywood cinema. This misconception is cor-rected by the experiences of IDFFSK 2018, as a jury member. India offers truly vivid and diverse cinema culture which is absent in West Asian cinema.

An unique opportunity to know Indian CinemaAmir Masoud Soheili

Every year numerous good films emanate from the campuses. This year, the films selected in the category of competition campus films are testimony to this fact. Production of a film was very expensive in the past but the arrival of digital technologies have changed the

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scenario drastically which opened gates for many talented youngsters to produce more films. This is the main reason for the upsurge in the number of campus films. IDSFFK 2018 proves that youngsters are the future of the film industry.

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A creative unrest from campus

“This year it was very impressive that there are much more senior people and youngsters. Young-sters are learning a lot from senior film makers and senior filmmak-ers discover many things from the younger crew. Everybody has heard of Anand Patwarthan and Sameera Jain, but never had a chance to acquaint or interact with them. IDSFFK in that sense offers a space for the intermingling of different types of filmmakers, ide-ologies and people.”

Gender matters a lot to my film making. When we say this film has no gender it implies that the particular film is made by a man. Gender is a part of my iden-tity. Everybody’s film has an element of gender in it. It is almost impossible to make a film which lacks gender identi-ty. Of course, there are masculine films made by man, dealing with the narratives of patriarchy. It’s the right time to make counter narratives of gender through art which is to be inclusive enough to ac-commodate diverse gender identities.A woman who urinates in public

It is the question that I asked through-out my work Q2P. I asked the same to a number of people and their answers form the soul of the politics which I tried to deal in my film. Most of the people I met with believed that a woman who

A festival of visual narratives that in-trospects pluralism and opposes fas-cist tendencies, IDSFFK 2018 comes to a close today, only to be resumed next year more strongly. The fest inaugurat-ed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and presided by AK Balan, Minister for Cultural Affairs, on July 20th, screened more than 200 movies including docu-mentaries and short films. Veteran film maker Anand Patwardhan was awarded lifetime achievement award in the cere-mony while filmmaker Rakesh Sharma was the chief guest. Chalachitra Akademi

Crossroads of Diverse

DiscoursesBina Paul

Counter narratives on gender dynamicsCharlie with his

Second Prize

A festival with a multitude of anti fascist protests

urinates in public would destroy our cul-ture. The question was primarily a sym-bolic one, exploring the gender of public spaces. You know, many women in our country have nowhere to go. There are poor women who urinate in public. We may not see them because they do it in darkness. Testimonials from an anti women, men and trans society

It is not the right time to have a de-bate on something that is ‘anti’ in nature. There are societies which respect wom-en. Traditions and culture exists where women are worshipped and honoured. At the same time, there are societies and cultures that are anti men and anti trans in nature. So the need of the hour is to free all people from gender identities in order to trace their journeys. All societ-ies, not only ours have created categories and compartments based on gender, where men have more freedom to define their journeys while women and Trans lack freedom to define themselves.

Nowfal N & Rahul S

Chairman Kamal, Vice Chairperson Bee-na Paul, Secretary Mahesh Panju, KSFDC Chairman Lenin Rajendran were the other participants on the opening day. Human Flow -a film themed on refugee crisis was screened as part of the inauguration func-tion. “Persian Tales” and “Engaging with sexuality”-the two popular sections in this year’s festival garnered positive response from delegates and critics for addressing the issues of migration and gender dynamics.

The fest was vibrant with platforms of discussions that challenged fascism and intolerance. Anand Patwardhanan and

Rakesh Sharma led from the front in advocating newer forms of resistance against the current Hindutva regime. The opinions of Kavitha Lankesh and documentary film maker Amudhan also imparted the fire of resistance among the delegates and other attend-ees. Anand Patwardhan –who was a presence of inspiration throughout the festival, opined that Kerala’s strong an-ti-fascist tradition is a beacon of hope for the rest of the country.

Majority of films screened in IDSFFK 2018 are highly political in nature. They are sharply spotting the current political dilemma going on in our nation. Person-ally, I don’t consider artist as an activist. Art itself is an activism. It responds and agitates with the malevolence of society.

Sreeraj Rajeev’s Second prize is the sec-ond movie acted by Chandrakiran, a sixth standard student of Arya Central School. Chandrakiran acts the role of Charlie, who plays the lead character in Second Prize. The story revolves around the explorations made by Charlie, culminates with the nega-tion of his inner prejudices. Chandrakiran’s performance was applauded wholehearted-ly by the audience of IDSFFK 2018. Art itself is an

activism: Mahesh Narayanan

Today’s Programme

In Conversation2.00 pm / Nila Theatre

in conversation withRaed Andoni

Press Meet12 Noon / Kairali Portico

Face to Face5.00 pm / Kairali Portico

The closing ceremony will have Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan as the chief guest.

A K Balan, Minister for Cultural Affairs will preside.

Paromita Vohra speaks

Kavitha Lankesh in conversation with Archana Padmini

Face to Face

Meet the Press