Mail News Service
Jamshedpur, Nov. 25: The annual short film festival of Jamshedpur, SHORTS, is now in its 13th year. The initiative began in 2008 pioneered by The Society for Promotion of Professional Excellence (SPPE), Jamshedpur and Take5 Communications, Kolkata. The Festival provides a platform for creative film makers, especially from Jharkhand, to showcase their creative concepts and this endeavour proved to be a big success making SHORTS one of the most popular events of the Steel City. Over the years, the Festival has showcased meaningful films of several directors, both professional and budding, from all over the country and abroad. Student Film makers have also participated representing their academic Institutions and the whole process has been very enriching for the cause of ‘Good Cinema’. The support of SPPE towards the Festival has been a shot in the arm and it remains a pillar of strength to take the event forward with every passing year.
SHORTS 2020 is going to be on the digital platform this year owing to the present COVID pandemic situation. This virtual version would be a bouquet of some of the best films from the archives of SHORTS.
SHORTS 2020 is scheduled on November 27 and 28, 2020 from 6 pm to 7 pm daily. Fifteen films would be screened in the span of two days, duration of films are between 3 minutes and 16 minutes and they comprise 7 films in Hindi, 3 in English, 1 in Bengali while 3 are Silent Films and 1 a foreign language (Arabic) film. The select films, by directors from Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur, have travelled to various National and International Film Festivals and thematically address major social issues like education, cleanliness, menstrual hygiene, water preservation, women safety, mental health, noise pollution to name a few.
The e-Film Festival however retains the same panache and zest of the earlier dozen SHORTS Festivals with the trademarked unique blend of style and soul to offer much food for thought to cinema lovers.