FTII protesters organise parallel film festival after IFFI cancels students’ section
The students' association said that they have been warned not to go ahead with the event, but they will.
Students from the Film and Television Institute of India will on Tuesday organise their own film festival after the students section was cancelled at the ongoing International Film Festival of India in Goa, reported the Hindustan Times. The FTII students association said that they have been warned not to go ahead with the film festival but their event will start at 11 am as planned. The two-day festival includes a film called FTII Strike, which is about the students’ recent agitation at the campus where they opposed the the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as FTII’s chairman. The film festival will be held at Center for Social Justice and Peace on DD Marg, Panjim, close to the official venue of International Film Festival of India.
The Goa administration had on Monday issued a notice to the festival organisers asking them to prove whether the films to be showcased had been certified by the Censor board. The notice states that the film festival being organised by the FTII students falls under “public exhibition” and therefore comes under the ambit of Cinematograph Act, 1952, which requires such films to be certified.
Students of FTII have been protesting against the appointments Chauhan and four others, claiming they were political moves, and had earlier gone on strike for 139 days.