KOLKATA: The Kolkata People's Film Festival (KPFF) organised by the People's Film Collective will be held from January 20 to January 23 at Uttam Mancha. The organisers are expecting a crowd of at least 1000 audience for all four days.
A total of 39 independent films, including full-length fiction films, documentaries and short films will be shown to the audience for free-of-cost. "We do not take money from any institutions, including corporate, state and NGOs. We take voluntary donations from the people which can be anything that they wish to contribute," Kasturi Basu, one of the co-founder of the collective, said.
The total budget for the film festival is ranging between Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. This will be the ninth screening of the film festival, which began its journey in 2014. However, in 2021, they could not conduct one as the number of Covid cases had spiked up during the time.
In 2022, the film festival was screened in the month of March instead of January. "This year the schedule has been back on track. The footfall of 2022 was good," Basu said.
This year films from not just India, but also South Asia, including Bangladesh and Nepal, will be screened. Fiction films, including 'Aise Hee' (Just Like That) by Kislay and 'Ek Jagah Apni' (A Place of Our Own) by Ektara Collective, amongst others will be screened.
An anonymous documentary film 'The Journey of a Bird', shot by youngsters of Myanmar will also be screened.
Apart from these two films on migration of labourers– 'The Riyalists' by Kesang Tseten and 'No Way Out' by Shekh Al Mamun will be screened at the festival. Meanwhile, two keynote speakers, including civil rights activist and journalist Teesta Setalvad and filmmaker Meghnath are scheduled to
be present.