Filmmakers should organise film festivals: Gautham Menon

Chennai: It is high time filmmakers should take the responsibility of film festivals and encourage aspiring film enthusiasts, says veteran director Gautham Vasudev Menon.

"Film festivals in our country are always organised by some private body or NGO, but not by filmmakers. It`s high time we as filmmakers take the onus upon us and organise film festivals," Menon, known for giving Tamil hits like ‘Minnale’ and ‘Vettaiyadu Vilayadu’, said here on the last day of Frame of Mind 2012 Sunday. Organised by an NGO called Scarf India - Schizophrenia Research Foundation, the Frame of Mind film festival has two main objectives. It seeks to improve awareness about mental health and beat the stigma attached to mental disorders, and to stimulate and promote interest in mental health issues among filmmakers. The three-day festival started Sep 28 and showcased short films depicting sensitive and accurate portrayal of mental health. Menon gave away prizes to the short film contest winners. "There are two aspects - competition and screening. We zero in on a theme and invite aspiring filmmakers to make short films in less than five minutes and we also screen films on the lines of the theme as part of our film festival," Tara Srinivasan, director Scarf India, said. As many as 49 short films were received from different parts of the country and a few entries came from abroad as well. Of these, 13 films were shortlisted for internal jury viewing and three best films were awarded. The jury members were actor and filmmaker Lakshmy Ramakrishnan, Srinivasan, Mitchell Vice, chairman Scarf India, and Menon. The first prize was shared by two films - bilingual ‘The Mind’, made in Tamil and English, and English movie ‘Go Away Evil’, made by a filmmaker from Cape Town. Second prize was given to Tamil short film ‘Ennakul Naan’ and Tamil film ‘Dirty Mind’ got the third prize. IANS