PSBT’s Open Frame Film Festival 2018 to kick off on 10 September

PSBT’s (Public Service Broadcasting Trust) 18th Open Frame Film Festival, in partnership with India International Centre, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller  Bhavan and INPUT will be held at the India International Centre, New Delhi, from 10 to 18 September. Over 27 Indian documentary films will be screened and several masterclasses will be held during the nine-day annual festival. 

The socially relevant Indian documentary line-up (long form) includes Anushka Shivdasani Rovsen and Madhuri Mohindar's, Breathe, which follows two women dealing with mental illness, Anindya Shankar Das' Zara Nazar Utha Ke Dekho, tales of cruising (to search public places for sex) in India, and Navdeep Sharma's A Safe Person to Talk To, a personal story about being a transgender teenager in our country and Deepti Pillay Sivan's Decoding Shankar, on what makes singer Shankar Mahadevan one of the most the great artistes of our times, among others.

In the international section, the festival will screen the Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize and multiple award winning and Oscar nominated Last Men in Aleppo by Feras Fayyad, a searing portrait of volunteers from the White Helmets, working in the streets of war-torn Syria. 

Four senior filmmakers will helm masterclasses on different subjects, including You Talking to Me? The Documentary as A Form of Conversation by Paromita Vohra, The Great and Small Expectations by Avijit Mukul Kishore, Subjective Real by RV Ramani and The Discourse of 'Things’ by Vipin Vijay.

Apart from the masterclasses there will also be conversations on subjects like telling real stories by using tools from fictional storytelling and storytelling in the digital age of social media; reimagining and interpreting history; inclusive stories and visual storytelling.

PSBT’s package of short films, engaging with sexualities, many of them made by first time filmmakers will also be showcased. The films have been produced in partnership with the Human Capability Foundation, and present diverse experiences of gender, sexuality, identity, relationships, desire, and freedom. The screenings will be followed by a discussion with the presenting filmmakers, Avijit Mukul Kishore and Vani Subramaniam.

The Mini-Input section, which will showcase some of the best public service broadcasting films and programmes from around the world, is set to open with the Canadian film, Three Thousand, directed by Asinnajaq’ Isabella-Rose Weetaluktuk. 

Other interesting films include Derek Hallquist's American film Denial: The Dad That Wanted To Save The World, which follows the story of Dave Hallquist, CEO of a Vermont electric utility, seen through the lens of his filmmaker son Derek and Canadian film Sickboy, directed by Andrew MacCormack, following  29-year-old yoga instructor Jeremie Saunders as he lives openly with cystic fibrosis and looks for ways to remove the stigma attached to the chronic illness.

There will also be conversations with filmmakers Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Shyam Benegal (trustees of PSBT), which will be moderated by Rajiv Mehrotra.