First International Kids Films Festival On India [ IKFFI] In ABHYASA

The First International Kids Films Festival of India was held in Abhyasa International Residential School from the 14th of Novemebr 2017 to the 19Th of November 2017. All the children from Grade 4 to 12 were shown Children's films from different countries, in different languages, with subtitles in English. A total of 108 films were screened out of which 37 were in the junior category, 33 in the middle category, 23 in the senior category and the rest open to all category.

The main aim of conducting this festival is to improve the communication skills of the children through the visual media as well to inculcate values to the children. Most of the films had the theme related to Children's issues. A few of them were to serve as role models while a few others gave them the confidence to face the challenges like bullying, child abuse etc., of the world.

The films were screened right from 9:00 AM up to 3:30PM. The films for junior children were shown in the morning session while the ones for senior students were shown in the afternoon session. The duration of the films varied from film to film. The films were from different countries such as Argentina, Australia , Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan Korea, Lebanon, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain and USA. The languages included Assamese, Bengali Dutch, ,English, French, Hindi, Italian, Konkani, Korean, Marathi, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portugeuse and Spanish. Most of the films were in English, while a few were with no dialogues. The genres included animation, live action, and documentary. A great majority of the films were animation films [usually liked best by kids]. The next in order of number was of live action and a few were documentary films.

The various themes on which the movies were made consisted of kindness, friendship, acceptance, environmental cleanliness, adventure, responsibility, leadership, bullying, exploration, problem solving, forgiveness, repentance, dealing with a loss, determination, empahty for parents and disabled people, responsibility, honesty, self acceptance, creativity, scientific spirit, family values, team work, detremination, unity, overcoming disability, understanding the value of money,generosity, consequences of greed, adapting to new environments, hygieneimagination, fantasy, love, self - defence, anger management, overcoming differences, being judgemental. Confidence, nostalgia, facing consequences of one's own actions, sibling rivalry, safety, cyber crime, career choices, child sexual abuse etc.The movies shown were mostly produced from 2014 till 2017, though a few were produced in 1995 and 1997. The movies from India were directed by Neha Sharma, Vani Arora and Hemanth Gaba, Kenny Basumaay,Sushanth Sawanth, Gautham Vaze,Sandeep Brahmbhattt, Mohit Modi, Vicky Barmecha, Varun Tandon, Avehi Menon, Hitesh Cahurasia, Pooja Das Sarkar, Shrish Tomar, Bargav saikia, Kanjan Kishore Nath and Lipika Singh Darai. Galvin Scot Davis, Aaron Ellis, Heather Maggs, Mikey Hall and Jilly Rose are the directors of the movies from Australia. A few of the titles in junor category were 'Once Upon a Blue Moon', 'Split', 'Forest Guards',First Snow', 'Moon Girl'Rumble in the Jugle' etc.A few in th esenor category include 'Trial and error',Fight it Right', A Letter to my unborn daughter' The Waterfall'' The Orchestra', 'Mere Pass Cinema Hi','Thrive' etc.

After every movie, a review session was conducted either by the teachers in charge or the senior students, in which children participated actively and put forward their ideas and opinions about the movie which they liked best and the ones they did not like much, apart from the lesson they learnt from the movies. In addition to this, all the children were asked to write a project on the film festival. They were provided with a printed format to assist them record the movies, which consisted of their names, class, Roll number, Title of the movie, cast, dorector, script witer, date of release, banner, awards, intoduction to the movie, theme, protagonist, antagonist, plot and summary, main characters, cinematography, choreography, music, message to the targeted audience, shortcomings, overall impression and suggestion of the age group.

Almost all the children enjoyed the movies and the festival was a grand success.