MUSCAT: The second edition of Indian Schools Film Fest (ISFF) was inaugurated by Dr. Baby Sam Saamuel, Chairman, Board of Directors of Indian Schools on Monday, 30 November 2020 in a virtual event organized by Indian School Sur. The fest includes competition on short film making and documentary on Indo-Oman relations.

Mr. Ajit Panicker, Director in Charge of Indian School Sur, was the Guest of Honour at the function. Educational Advisor Mr. M P Vinoba, Presidents and members of the School Management Committees, and Principals of Indian Schools were present.

In his inaugural address, Dr Baby Sam Saamuel highlighted the role of cinema on culture and society and spoke on how the need and relevance of movies have changed in 2020 and added, “With the second edition of the Indian School Film Fest, we aim to empower our students to change from a passive consumer of media to an active creator of art.” He appreciated Indian School Sur for shouldering the responsibility to organize the event despite the constraints that the pandemic has caused.  

Mr. Mohammed Ameen, President of the SMC, Indian School Sur, in the welcome address expressed his deep delight in the opportunity provided to the school to organize a national event of high educational and career value for the students.

Felicitating the function, Mr. Ajit Panicker expressed great pleasure in the efforts that the BoD has taken up to formulate the novel idea put forward by the Chairman to open up the panorama of film making techniques to the growing students. He reassured that the students would gain immensely from the eminent trainers.

Dr S. Srinivasan, the Principal of the host school, presented the salient features of the short film making competition and the preparation of documentary on Indo Oman relationship marking the 50th National Day of the Sultanate. He said that 44 teams have registered for short film making and eight teams have entered in preparing the documentary. The school will provide training sessions on various stages of film making by field experts during the next five weeks – he added.

The students added soothing hues and rhythm to the inaugural ceremony with prayer song, invocation dance and an enthralling dance number.Dr Sujatha Natarajan, member of the festival organizing committee, proposed the vote of thanks. 

The first training session on documentary and film making was held soon after the inaugural ceremony.  Dr Nithin Kalroth, a film scholar from India and Mr. Sam Kumar of Mirage films, were the resource persons.