A poster of a Spanish short film screened at the Bhubaneswar Youth Short Film Festival. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, March 1: Short films were screened in the city at the daylong Bhubaneswar Youth Short Film Festival at Jayadev Bhavan yesterday. The film festival organised by a group of youngsters from the city also showcased works by Odia short filmmakers.

The festival began with the screening of Dilli NCR Ki Folklore, a comedy by young filmmaker Saif Kidwai. It was followed by 10 more short films in Hindi and Spanish. After this segment, titled Short Film Bonanza, which was screened during the morning session, the noon session featured some special selections such as Inklab by Gaurav Chhabra, a 62-minute film made in 2011. The film had created waves in the country for highlighting the involvement of citizens in bringing around social change.

While this controversial film received rave response from film enthusiasts in the city, the well-known experimental fiction, 1988 cult film Om-Dar-Ba-Dar by Kamal Swaroop impressed the audience because of its experimental genre.

“Om-Dar-Ba-Dar has remained a one-of-its-kind film ever since it was made. It deals with social issues in a multi-layered plot that hits subjects such as casteism, capitalism and socialism as well as education and superstition. The film had generated a strong reaction from the public during its release and was banned because of which underground screenings were conducted in the late 80s,” said Surya Shankar Dash, a filmmaker and an advisor of Spark Creative Foundation, the youth group, that had organised the festival.

“The film is unique since it uses elements of absurd theatre and surrealism and blends them with radical thoughts,” he said.

Memories of a Dead Township was screened in the matinee segment in the genre of no budget or zero-budget films (short films made with minimal budget) after which Aaliya by Rajiv Mohite was shown that featured stunning cinematography and audiography.

The evening was dedicated to short films from Odisha. Ek Idiot by Rudraranjan Sejpadan and Zaroori Khwab by Surya Shankar Dash (which was released in Berlin at the oldest film theatre of Germany) among others were screened. Ek Idiot was a five-minute film that revolved around a school kid, whom his teacher always scolds.

“We made this film within two hours and the final copy was ready within the same day. It is a psychological film showing how an upper primary school kid, who has good handwriting, is taunted by his teacher for writing gibberish. However, once, while painting a sentence against his teacher on the street he writes in his usual beautiful calligraphy. It just shows how kids do things only when they enjoy it,” said Sejpada, who is also an organising member.

Among other major films screened that have won over 10 awards globally were documentaries Videokaaran by Jagannathan Krishnan and Supermen of Malegaon by Faiza Khan.

“Odia youths have become passionate about short films today, thanks to festivals such as Bring Your Own Film Festival (BYOFF) in Puri. Sadly, this kind of filmmaking is limited to festivals and online viewing, while there is a huge market for such films outside the country,” said Manas Mallik, another organising member.