Film fest for disabled people gets signature movie

The three-day film festival will be held at Siri Fort auditorium here from Tuesday (December 1). The special film by Rao will be unveiled on Monday (November 30) at a curtain raiser event to be held at Press Information Bureau, Shastri Bhawan here, read a statement.

“Having seen my body of work, National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) proposed to me the idea of making a signature film for the festival. From there, I conceived a couple of ideas wherein the concept/philosophy that we decided to follow was – to show what differently-abled people are capable of doing rather than what they are not,” Rao said.

The festival is organised by Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and National Film Development Corporation.

The crux of Rao’s 30-second animated signature film is ‘Swavlamban’ (empowerment) which is the motto of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment.

The lyrical narrative of the film, further embellished by Rao’s art, evokes the festival’s core objectives of bringing about an attitude of inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities. The film will be played before every film screening at the festival.

Rao shared that she has used shadow puppetry with no strings for her movie.

I designed a style using shadow puppets, a lost Indian art form, that enabled me to portray differently-abled people with an aesthetic where they are not controlled by strings, but by their own strength,” she said.

Creating impactful visuals were not the only thing on Rao’s mind. Music was another important aspect.

She shared: “The music created by Sagar Desai lends a timeless quality to the film. The fact that it will be screened repeatedly meant the visual and music had to be rich, detailed with more to hear and see with every viewing.”

Rao’s previous short film “Printed Rainbow” won three awards at Cannes International Film Festival in 2006.

Meanwhile, a total number of 40 Indian language and International films will be screened at the festival which comprises of 16 short films, 14 documentaries and 10 features (7 fiction and 3 documentary films). The National award winning Marathi feature Film “Yellow” is the inaugural movie of the festival.