Bhubaneswar: The fourth edition of the Children’s Film Festival (CFF), organised by the Film Society of Bhubaneswar (FSB), began Wednesday at the GKCM Odissi Research Centre auditorium, bringing together students from different schools for film screenings and creative workshops.
Students of Classes VI, VII and VIII from KIIT International School and Sri Chaitanya Techno School participated in the opening day of the three-day festival.
The programme began with students who had attended previous editions sharing their experiences. This was followed by the screening of The Sheep Detective, a mystery comedy-drama directed by Kyle Balda and written by Craig Mazin. The film follows a flock of sheep that sets out to solve the murder of their shepherd, George.
Students later took part in an interactive session, where they were divided into groups to develop storylines and narratives for “Sock Puppet” short films featuring handmade sock puppets.
Teachers accompanying the students praised the initiative for bringing together children from different schools on a common platform.
“Sharing of ideas enables the cognitive development of students. They get to talk and interact with students from different schools, stitch ideas together to form stories and perform them together,” they said.
Sachit, a fashion design student volunteering at the festival, said exposing children to films from around the world was important.
“The workshops at the festival hope to engage children in the pleasure of making things with their own hands and later seeing their work exhibited on a big screen,” he said.
The opening day concluded with the screening of Avaar Navaar Chhoriyaan, an independent stop-motion animation by Shefalee Jain and Shivi Bhatnagar. Based on a Rajasthani folktale, the film explores women’s friendship and patriarchal structures.
The festival will also feature a cyanotype photographic print-making workshop on its second day.
Dharitri and Orissa POST are the print media partners for the event.