And then there was magic...

Skiing in Netherlands, walking through the deserts of Rajasthan, experiencing life amidst war; the innocence of childhood, the excitement of adventures and escapades, the simplicity of dreams and the joy in chasing them...learning, exploring, crying and rejoicing - kids went through a rollercoaster ride of emotions at the recently concluded International Children’s Film Festival India 2015.

But alas! For those who missed the bus, there is no other platform to catch up with the best of international children’s cinema. It is high time we found alternatives to makes these films widely available and not just restrict them to festivals

It feels like the silence after a storm – albeit of a good kind. The week-long fest of children’s cinema - around 200 of them from around the world – Korea, Japan, Croatia, Kurdistan, Germany, France, Netherlands, Iran, Italy, Russia, USA, India – so many countries and such huge number of films and as many cultures vividly on display, and that many stories screened exclusively for children - is a true celebration in every sense.

The International Children’s Film Festival India that concluded recently in Hyderabad has had much to desire on many counts, but to give credit where it is due, one can never argue with the quality of films and the sheer magnitude of them. And that these films are made for children and quite a few of them made by children themselves, makes it a stellar affair for the kids from India, who are mostly fed with the staple of Bollywood and regional cinema that is marked by sheer disregard for the future generation.

On the concluding day, films like ‘Celestial Camel’ from Russia – a heartwarming story of a boy who goes looking for his lost camel; Korean film, ‘How to Steal a Dog’ – the young and innocent girl’s search for a dog to steal in order to buy a house and how she learns about the right and wrong; films from Netherlands - ‘Casper and Emma’s Winter Vacation’ the endearing tale of friendship where the two friends are having a great time learning to ski and playing around until another boy Peter arrives and ‘Labyrinthus’ that has 14-year-old Frikke playing a computer game only to realise real-life friends and animals are a part of the game; the Dutch film ‘Code M’ that has a young girl Isabel, who is on a search for a mysterious sword of a musketeer;

Belgium’s ‘Song of the Sea’ – the story of a brother and sister who learn of ancient tales and magic with the help of a long-lost flute that belonged to their mother; ‘Yellow Festival’ - the short film from India that questions the age-old tradition of celebrating the girl’s coming of age; yet another Indian film, ‘Rainbow’ that showcases India (Rajasthan) in all its glory as it tells the story of a brother and sister who are on a journey to realise their dream – short films, feature and animations films that showcased culture, dances, music, colours, traditions, faith, obsessions, political conditions,

economic issues et al were selected for awards in various categories. The awards were based on the relevance, the message, focus on local culture and not to be missed the entertainment factor, according to the jury. In addition to watching the films that is nothing short of wholesome entertainment and a world of education, the kids got to interact with the film makers and in short, it was quite an experience.

The movies selected for top honours are absolutely deserving, but that does not discount the amazing quality of the rest of them. Take for example the German film, ‘Kick It’ - The young football loving girl Anja’s story of fight with cancer and how her friends make her happy; Iranian films ‘Story Of My Father’s Bike And Me’ and ‘Ranna Silence’, Filipino movie ‘Scare Crow’, Chinese production ‘The Lamb’, Kannada feature film ‘Baanadi’, Sri Lankan film ‘The Singing Pond’, Kurdistan/UK film ‘I Am Sami’, ‘Shimajiro And The Mother Tree’ - a Japanese animation film that added to the fun by getting the kids from the audience involved in the story, and several others.

The main venue Prasads was brimming with children of all ages, who came in from schools, with parents and from across the country with their teachers; some of them were filmmakers and a few others were delegates judging the films. If a few films did not have the audience that they warranted, it was only because of the non-availability of the synopsis, neither in the printed format nor online in the much advertised festival website.

For example, there was this Japanese animation film that had the kids jumping, shouting and clapping and having absolute fun happening in one screen - only half-filled, because, the youngest of kids who would have enjoyed this film did not know of the screening and were either watching a film meant for the teens on the other screen or were seen running around the lobby.

While a theatre in one of the most happening part of Hyderabad, Hitec City, flanked by various ‘International schools’ saw poor turnout, the ones in the suburbs like Dilsukhnagar and Malkajgiri had bus loads of children arriving; some even had to return for want of seats. One of the films that went on to win the award, ‘Casper and Emma…’ was being screened at Ravindra Bharathi at night and one peek into the auditorium at 8 pm revealed a houseful of overjoyed kids.

Does that say something for the schools? One of the biggest children’s festival in the country had on one hand, kids, sometimes as young as 5 to 8 years coming from all around India to stay in the city with their teachers only to be able to watch some of the best films made for them, and on the other were the several schools of Hyderabad that conducted exams and took kids on a picnic to a resort, but did not think it was important to bring their children to watch at least one film at the fest.

How do the children who missed the festival or who would want to watch a few movies again get access to the films that come from around the world? There is a facility that Children’s Film Society of India provides through its website where those interested in screening the films made by CFSI can browse and select, and co-ordinate screening or even buy DVDs. A few schools do take the initiative and screen the films and there are several smaller film clubs around India,

some of them quite enthusiastic and they take the effort to hold smaller format children’s festivals. Member of one such film club, Dr Veernarayana Rao, who is also the Chairman of Viveka School, Tenali, shares, “The Tenali Cultural Film Society conducts Children’s Film Festival every year. On alternate-year basis it is done slightly on a bigger format. We screen around 30 films over a period of 5 days and children from surrounding towns too attend the festival.” Obviously this facility does not extend to films beyond the umbrella of CFSI.

TS Nagabharana from Bengaluru, one of the top children’s filmmakers in India, recipient of around 10 national awards says, “It is a very simple solution. The government (CFSI ) can spend a little portion of its funds to buy a couple of good films from each regional language, every year. In such a case, there will be renewed interest to produce more children’s cinema. Quality will also improve. It is only then it becomes a vibrant movement.”

India is not the only country where children’s cinema does not get enough attention. It is a world-wide phenomenon. And that doesn’t make it a lesser evil.

One pertinent problem facing children’s films across the world is that some of the best cinema happens at the film festivals, but once the festival is over, there is no way one can watch the film again. Procuring a DVD is equally difficult. It is not much different in the US and Canada, says Venay Felton, Curator of Montreal’s International Children’s Film festival.

“Once the festival is over, most of the films are not available, not even on Netflix. There are no DVDs too. We pay for the films when we get them to festivals, for some as high $1000. And our budgets won’t allow us to buy the rights for the films for screenings beyond the festival. We receive so many calls asking about where they can watch a particularly good movie and we do not know what to say. We are working on finding an alternate solution.”

The internet has reduced the world to one single entity, a task that had seemed impossible for ages. Now, more than ever, is the time when a universally accepted solution is found to make children’s films easily available to every child in the world.