If the city can be proud of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, the firsteditionof theKochi International Film Festival(KIFF) left a lot to be desired as screenings began on Sunday before the inauguration.
Organizers were conspicuously absent in the morning and theatres screening films - Saritha, Savitha, Sangeetha and Sreedhar - had no clue about film schedules with dejected fans, who were hoping to watch critically-acclaimed movies, seen in heated arguments with theater staff. As if on cue, chief ministerOommen Chandy, who was to inaugurate the fest, also decided to skip the event.
When TOI quizzed district collector P I Sheik Pareeth, he admitted that there were some drawbacks in the organisation of the international film fest. The festival is being organized by Cochin-GatewayEntertainmentManagement Society (C-GEMS) in association with the district administration andCochin Corporation. Assistant collector Gokul G R said that they would sort out all issues at the earliest.
The organizers had earlier shifted their inaugural function from Durbar Hall ground to Saritha theater in the last minute as work at the original venue was not over.
Savitha and Sangeetha theatresinCochin
A brochure, which seemed to be put together as an after thought, only provided information regarding the screening of films for the first three days. Sources said that organisers do not have any clue about films to be screened at the fest though they had announced a list of 70 films. "The organisation of the film fest is very poor. Nobody has any clue about the movies that will be screened hereThey could have made it a mega event by organising it efficiently," said Binoy Puthussery, an HR consultant, who came for the fest on Sunday. "The prints of many films are yet to arrive and we cannot provide information on screenings. Hopefully, all prints will arrive in the next two days from Goa and Thiruvananthapuram. We can come up with a brochure on screenings only after that," said an official associated with the fest.The organisers also remained clueless on the participation of delegates. "We have invited many eminent people from the film industry but we are not sure how many will come for the event. All those with delegate passes will be allowed to attend the screenings," festival organizers said.
Compared to over 7,000 delegate passes issued for the recently concluded International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), around 200 people came for screenings at Savitha and Sangeetha theatres on Sunday. Sources said that the low turnout was mainly due to the poor publicity given to the event.
Screenings began at 2 pm with 'At the Horizon' at Sangeetha theater.
The cinema theatres Saritha, Savitha, Sangeetha and Sreedhar as well as the Durbar Hall Ground will be the venues for the festival. The organisers said distribution of the delegate passes for the festival had begun at DTPC office and the at the film festival office at Children's Park. The charges for delegates pass are RS 300 and Rs 150 for students. The 7 day festival started on y esterday (16 Dec) and will end on 23 Dec.
source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/Kochi-international-film-fest-gets-off-to-a-messy-start/articleshow/17644441.cms
