Kochi Metro Malayalam Short Film Fest (KMMSFF) commenced in 2014 with an aim to encourage and nurture budding talents, who, apart from having passion towards cinema, also have the talent to create a good a movie. Through this initiative, for the last two years the organisers have been able to screen almost 360 short films in different stages, which in turn have given an opportunity to many people., who aspire to make films but are held back by various constraints, to showcase their talents. The fest started as a combined effort of actor Mohanlal, who is also the chairman of KMMSFF, and actor Raveendran, who is the director of the entire initiative.
After the grand success of the Kochi metro chapter, KMMSFF is all set to begin its UAE chapter through ‘Arabian Frames’, with an aim to screen almost 60 short films made by expatriates at different venues in Kerala. Arabian Frames, according to the organisers, is a first-of-its-kind film festival that will only showcase movies made by non-resident Indians.
The screenings of the movies have begun from January 9, which is celebrated as Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.
Explaining the idea behind choosing this day, Sunaiz, Coordinator of KMMSFF, Kerala says, “January 9 is a day that marks the contribution of every Pravasi Indian for the development of our country and we thought that it would be apt to start screening the shot films made by these non-resident Indians on the same day as a medium to thank them for their support and care for our country has a whole.”
The screening of the short films was inaugurated during a function organised by Kochi Metro UAE in association Chamber of Commerce and Mahatma Gandhi University, School of Letters. MG University Vice Chancellor Babu Sebastian inaugurated the function and it was presided by Dr. V.C. Harris, Director, School of Letters. Other eminent personalities like Dr. Harikumar Changapuzha, Dr. Aju K. Narayanan and members of the Chamber of Commerce were present at the meeting. Ravindran spoke about the feeling that people living away from their native place experience and how Arabian Frames will provide all such people an opportunity to prove their talent and get recognition for it in their homeland.
The screening of the movies is being done at various colleges under MG University from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram.
Commenting on the response that Arabian Nights is receiving, an official at KMMSFF said, “The expatriates have received Kochi Metro UAE as a huge event, as their short films are being screened at many venues in their homeland and many of the subjects chosen, which are real life incidents, are reaching out to their loved ones back home.”
Marking the beginning of Arabian Frames, a three-day film festival was also held at Perunthalmanna, considered as the heart of NRIs. The fest was conducted by KMMSFF in association with the Perunthalmanna Municipality. According to the organisers, the fest has been successful in introducing a bunch of talents to the creative pool of Malayalam cinema. Apart from this, short films from NRIs in the USA, Asia, Europe, etc. too were screened at Arabian Frames.
Director Raveendran was unavailable for comment.
