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Bhubaneswar, Feb. 4: The seventh annual short and documentary film festival on the arts and artists titled ‘Imaging the Arts’ began at the Idcol auditorium on Sunday.
Organised by JD Centre of Art (JDCA), the three-day festival has brought together artistry, dance, poetry and films on the same platform. The present edition focuses on Buddhist art and culture.
The inaugural screening was a 30-minute documentary by Benoy K. Behl titled Orissa: A cradle of Buddhism. The film, part of a 12-film series covers Buddhist sites such as Dhauli, Ratnagiri and Langudi Hill.
Also shown on the day was Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam. The hour-long film is based on the Tibetan belief that Rinpoche, a revered lama, will soon be reincarnated. Short films such as Art in Exile by Nidhi Tuli and Ashraf Abbas, Suderer Pathik by Bangladeshi filmmaker Fahminda Munni and The Undying Flame by Manoranjan Dash were also screened.
On the second day, Bengali filmmaker-cum-painter Caesar Das screened his documentary The Colour Is Black. The documentary spoke about the works of painter Jogen Chowdhury.
“I chose films as my medium because I felt people were less interested in visual art,” said Das after the screening.
Next to be screened was Rasikapriya by Arun Khopkar, with Hindustani classical music as its theme.
The concluding day will mostly screen films by students. Animation films by National School of Design, Ahmedabad, will be a major attraction.
A documentary, Nilamadhava, on classical singer Sunanda Patnaik will be the last film to be screened at the festival.
Forty films from the 112 entries were selected for screening here. Eight films were selected in the students’ category while 60 per cent of the films focuses on Buddhist culture. Workshops on filmmaking and photography were also conducted at the festival.
Independent filmmaker Nandan Saxena and film journalist Aruna Vasudev attended the festival.
“We need a cultural milieu in the state. The festival is our small endeavour to project different forms of art on a common platform,” said Jatin Das, JDCA founder and chairman.
His daughter, actress Nandita Das, too, was present for the inaugural ceremony.
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