i4d Film Festival under the GK3 banner

Created By: Sulakshana on 31-Aug-2007 12:00 AM

Over the past ten years, CSDMS has hosted many international conferences and been producing extensive content in the form of its four magazines, however the limitations of the spoken and written word usually excludes a vast majority of the effected community from the discussions. The representatives of many grassroots communities as well as government organisations would often bring along short films which communicated the issues of their community through the eyes of the community themselves. A lot of community-generated content, which focuses on the needs of the grassroots community, is available in the form of videos. This content, however, is scattered. The i4d Film Festival, Beyond the Mainstream… was an attempt to bring together this community of filmmakers. The filmmakers are farmers, vegetable-sellers, slum dwellers, street children and just everyday members of the community.

Soon after our mega-event in Malaysia in the month of February, 2007, we felt the need to expand our horizons into the visual medium in the form of videos. Many NGOs, non-governmental international as well as governmental agencies were keen to bring their experiences to the forum in the form of short films. Thus, was borne the concept of the i4d Film Festival. In the subsequent months we advertised extensively calling for entries to this film festival. To our surprise and joy, most of the films submitted were relevant, exciting, conceptually innovative and most importantly generated by the effected communities themselves.

The film festival held on the 3rd of August 2007 brought together over 20 organisations. There was a sizable representation from various community groups who submitted films. It brought together experiences with Community Video from across the country.

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