Docu on Sunderbans screened at city film fest

KOLKATA: The Forum for Film Studies and Allied Arts and NEZ Foundation, Kolkata, jointly organised a film fest, where 14 films, including six short films, one documentary, two animations and five feature films were screened at the Satyajit Ray auditorium, ICCR recently. At the inauguration, director Sudeshna Roy was present along with producer Anjan Bose and Goutam De, former regional director, ICCR, Kolkata and Goutam Ghose, filmmaker and president of Forum for Film Studies and Allied Arts were present. A panel discussion on ‘new perspective and prospects of film making with the advancement of digital technology’ also took place at the ninth NEZ International Film Festival in the presence of the dignitaries.

From ‘Elysium Hernalsiense’, an Austrian film directed by Bernhard Kammel, which tells the story of a man in a permanent vegetative state, to Hexing by director Christophe Lenoir where Hannah returns home to her estranged father to piece together the circumstances of her mother’s death, the film fest had a bouquet of creations for all kinds of viewers. One of the most loved was ‘Sunderbans - Saga of Hungry Tides’, a 58-minute documentary by Abhijit Chakraborty. In the documentary, he showed how the Sunderbans is witnessing depletion of natural resources. Salt water bheris are usurping farm tracts, resulting in poisonous spillover to rivers leading to less catch of fishes. Effect of climate change and enhanced cases of tiger attacks has endangered the life and livelihood of the inhabitants of the Sunderbans. The docu was also screened at the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival.