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ENTERTAINMENT

While recalling his childhood days, he People across cultures can relate to country. The idea behind SIFFCY was to
mentioned that while growing up he had the story.” engage, entertain, educate and empower
a great interest in designing, drawing, Stevenson believes that children young minds through meaningful films.
and storytelling. He said, “I had a pretty these days are glued to the internet, You- Talking about the vision, Jitendra Mishra,
good ability to draw. As I started growing Tube and all, so it is necessary to keep a Festival Director, SIFFCY said, “SIFFCY is
up, I thought, drawing cartoons for TV check on what they watch. The festival not just about screening international
would be a fun way of making a living.” screened almost 150 films in over 30 dif- films but appreciating the efforts and the
ferent languages from 50 countries. The energy invested by the people involved,
t the initial stage of his career, focus was on socially relevant cinema to especially children and the youth.”
Stevenson never felt animation impact the youth and initiate a positive This year, the festival screened crea-
A challenging, rather it happened to change in the world. tive and good content-oriented films
be a successful commercial film formula Stevenson is developing a live-action include award-winning Binti by Fred-
viable and acceptable across American project these days. When asked about his erike Migom (Belgium), Musk by Vinod
studios. Recalling his early days, he said, interest in working India, he promptly Kamble (India), Phantom Owl Forest by
“For me, animation is not a genre but a said, “Why not! This was my second trip AnuAun (Estonia), Fight Girl by Johan
technique using which any kind of story to India and I thoroughly enjoyed my Timmers (The Netherlands), Invent-
can be told. To put everything that you role as a jury member at the film festival. ing Tomorrow by Laura Nix (USA, India,
personally believe in, in a commercial
world animation film is sometimes chal-
lenging but not impossible.”
With time the approach towards
animation films has been changed a lot, ““
mostly positive. With 44 years of experi-
ence in making animation films, Steven- Children these days are glued to the internet,
son has “seen a lot of change with time”.
He said, “A lot has changed. Some part YouTube and all, so it is necessary to keep a check
is technical, as earlier it was all hand- on what they watch. All visual media is extremely
drawn and slow-motion but now all
animation is computer generated. Also, powerful and through visuals, it is easy to get
now people in the studios believe that children’s attention with films and online content
it is only successful when it is computer
generated, although I don’t agree.” that is interesting and engaging.
Nothing pleases Stevenson except
films; most of his time goes to films or
visual storytelling. His film Kung Fu
Panda (KFP) got him immense success
and recognition worldwide. KFP is one
of his most appreciated movies and the
characters gained much popularity and If I got an opportunity to create a film, I Indonesia, Mexico), Underdog by Seong-
become iconic. would absolutely love it. Although, as of Yun OH and Chun-Baek Lee (South
Telling us about his inspiration of now, I don’t have any projects in India.” Korea), Here My Village by Abas Aram
drawing characters like Po and Master SIFFCY brought some of the eminent (Iran), and many more.
Shifu, he said, “When we were designing personalities together, from the film fra- At the end of the festival, SIFFCY
the characters of Po and Master Shifu, ternity around the globe, whose work awarded some of the films in seven dif-
we wanted them to be universally relat- has been exemplary contribution to the ferent categories. Abas Aram’s film Here
able. The story is about a useless student world cinema includes John Stevenson, My Village from Iran reigned supreme at
and a strong teacher. This is a staple of the director of Kung Fu Panda, Mitsuo Ta- the awards ceremony by winning in four
a typical Chinese martial arts film, say hira (Japan), Paméla Bisson, Film Maker, categories that included Best Story, Best
a Jackie Chan and a vulnerable student. Ratnottama Sengupta, National Award- Director, Film Critics Circle of India and
But as the story evolves, the student also winning film critic (India), Utpal Datta, CIFEJ awards. On the other hand Fred-
undergoes a transformation. Po, in this National Award-winning film critic (In- erike Migom’s Binti, Johan Timmers’s
case, is a vulnerable student with big dia), Johnson Thomas, Eminent Journalist Fight Girl, Laura’s Inventing Tomorrow
dreams and his teacher who initially (India) and many more. was among the most appreciated movies
thinks that he is worthless, gradually Besides celebrating “Good Cinema” from the festival.
moulds him into a perfect student. This the fest received participation by over
as a concept is accepted universally. 20,000 children and youth across the LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM

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