Environment film fest from tomorrow

HYDERABAD: Forty award-winning films with the theme of ‘environment and wildlife' will be screened at the three-day film festival and forum ‘Hyderabad CMS Vatavaran 2010' to be held here from August 11.

Being conducted for the fourth time nation-wide and third time here, the biennial travelling film festival will visit the cities of Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Patna, Port Blair, Shillong, Shimla and Thiruvananthapuram this year.

On the spectrum will be prize-winning films from the national-level festival held at Delhi last year. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan at Basheerbagh will be the main venue, with a parallel venue at the University of Hyderabad.

Though open for all, special focus of the festival will be on children who will get a special time slot from 10.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. each day.

Nearly 20 films will be screened in this slot exclusively for them, Narendra Yadav, Communications Manager of the Centre for Media Studies, informed at a media conference here on Monday. For general audience, the hours of screening will be from 1.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m., followed by a panorama of feature films each day. Besides, there will be workshops, seminars, open forums and panel discussions on contemporary environmental issues.

Felicitations

A group of conservationists, including film-makers Shekar Dattatri and Girish Girija Joshi, environmentalists Vijaya Rama Kumar and K. Purushottam Reddy, civil society activist Rao Chelikani, and urban planner B.N.Reddy will be felicitated as ‘Green Heroes' on the occasion. The festival will be inaugurated by Assembly Speaker N. Kiran Kumar Reddy at 10.30 a.m. on the said day. ‘Zor Laga Ke Haiya', a film by Girsh Girija Joshi has been chosen for the NGC Sadhana CMS award carrying a cash prize of Rs.25,000, said W. G. Prasanna Kumar, Director of AP National Green Corps, which is the main organising partner.

He said invitations have been dispatched to 500 schools in the city and Ranga Reddy district and hoped that at least 100 schools would participate.

He also shared details about the ‘Low Carbon Fair' promoted by the Organising Committee of Common Wealth Games 2010 and conducted here by CMS and APNGC. The campaign is on since August 4.

Source: The Hindu,10-8-2010