Govt school kids to get glimpse of international cinema

BENGALURU: This

Children’s Day

has a visual treat in

store for government school kids

— they’ll get to watch international films shortlisted from various festivals. The screening will be held on November 14 for students of institutions with Edusat (satellite) and tele-education facilities.


The initiative, a first of its kind in the state, will cater to over three lakh government school children. The films are categorized into junior, middle and senior levels depending on the kids’ age. They will be shown in different slots — from 10.15am to11.15am for classes 4 and 5, from 11.30am to 1.20pm for classes 6, 7 and 8, and from 2.15pm to 3.50pm for classes 9 and 10.

On November 7, the education department issued a circular and suggested that a dry run be held on November 12 to make sure technical arrangements are in place. On November 9, a district-level meeting will be conducted to verify the technical feasibility of the screening through the satellite network.

HN Gopalakrishna, director, department of state educational research and training, told TOI that 2,500 schools benefit from the Edusat facility and 1,000 from the teleeducation model. “The screening will be held at the DSERT office in Bengaluru, which will be telecasted to government schools through the satellite,” he said.

The aim is to take international films to students in every nook and corner of the state. “The festival curation team has zeroed in on the films to be screened in over three sessions. Private schools will host the festival for over four days,” added Syed Sultan Ahmed, managing director, LXL Ideas Private Ltd, which will screen the films along with the education department.

The firm approached both private and government schools to screen children’s films selected from global festivals. Stating that the response was encouraging, Ahmed said: “Do children from far-off districts ever get to go to international film festivals? We want to take the world’s best children’s movies to their schools. Language is no barrier in children’s films and there are English subtitles anyway.”

The organisers have picked 100 films from 30 countries in 20 languages; the duration varies from 2 minutes to 20 minutes.