Short films made by kids aged 7-16 years under the 'Little Directors' programme, an initiative of Children's Film Society India (CFSI), will be showcased at the upcoming International Children's Film Festival.
The 20th edition of the film festival will be held in Hyderabad from November 8.
As part of the Little Directors programme, which was started during the 18th International Children Film Festival in 2013, the kids made 3 to 5 minutes long short films.
The programme was recently introduced in rural areas of Bihar and will move to Rajasthan in December.
During the Bihar leg of the programme, CFSI, in partnership with World Bank-DIME and Asian Centre for Entertainment Education (ACEE) conducted workshops for the rural and underprivileged children in Bihar.
Introduction and discussion on eight important issues related to water, sanitation and gender with respect to Bihar was undertaken with children.
Besides this, the children were also provided training on storyboarding, budgeting, shooting and editing (post production) during the workshop.
As a part of training, CFSI films like Pinti Ka Sabun (a film on hygiene), Bandu Boxer (a film on rural development) and Pani Re Pani (a film on water sanitation) were shown to the children.
"Our concept 'Little Directors' has been one of the most unique experiments anywhere in the world being conducted in a professional environment through trained experts.
"Since we launched this concept, it has become a star attraction in our festivals. We are extremely happy that this programme was supported by World Bank and they will be undertaking an impact evaluation study based on this programme," Shravan Kumar, CEO CFSI, said.
The film festival this year has received 179 entries from 30 countries, including 101 from India.
"During the 19th ICFFI, we had received 187 entries from eight countries in the Little Directors Section as against 123 entries during the 18th ICFFI.
"This time, we have received 179 entries so far, out of which 101 are from India and the remaining from over 30 countries. This clearly indicates that the festival has gained popularity world over," he said.
The film festival will conclude on November 14.
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