International Children’s Film festival at Bakul

Bhubaneswar: Bakul Foundation has been organizing a Festival of International Children’s Films at the Bakul Library in Satyanagar in which everyday at 5PM from 12 to 17 May, children and adults alike have been treated to a unique visual experience of the best of cinema from around the world, from Europe (Italy), West Asia (Iran), East Asia (Japan and Korea), North America (Canada) and India.

All the foreign films have English subtitles and will appeal to children (8 years and above), young adults and adults alike. The films have diversity of style from animation to Japanese anime to social drama and comedy. This is the 3rd edition of the Film Festival, which has become an annual event at Bakul.

Sujit Mahapatra, the founder of Bakul Foundation, said that “Bakul Foundation has always strived to give children a multicultural exposure that will expose children to diversities and make them more inclusive and appreciative of diverse cultures in the process. And when children are exposed to different aesthetics of cinema coming from different cultures, their imagination opens up, and they know that there is no one way to imagine things or to create things.”

Bakul Foundation, conducted an online storytelling festival during Covid in which the best storytellers from 50 different countries introduced their culture to our children. The Bakul Library in Satyanagar also has a specially curated collection of Folktales and children’s books from over 70 different countries.

One of the most interesting things in this year’s Film Festival is that one needed tickets to watch the films, but the ticket was free, but could be got after reading for 30 minutes in the library.

The films being screened are Roberto Begnini’s “Life is Beautiful” from Italy, Majid Majidi’s “The Colour of Paradise” from Iran, Yoon Ga-eun’s The House of Us (Korea), Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo, Scott Dobson’s “Puffin Patrol” (Canada) and Paresh Mokashi’s “Elizabeth Ekadashi” (Marathi).

Saubhagya Beura, the Curator of the Festival, said that some of the finest directors of children’s cinema have been repeated in each edition of the festival such as Majid Majidi and Hayao Miyazaki. That apart, in this edition of the Festival, they tried to add diversity to the earlier editions, and that’s why Puffin Patrol, a documentary but extremely interesting for children was included.