By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, January 16, 2016 : A three-day film festival on Art and Artists was on Friday kicked off here highlighting Odisha arts and crafts and showcasing the local arts forms which are dying a slow and steady death.

During the event, seven films from Odisha, two international films and a few animation films by foreign students will be screened.

Organized by JD center of Art (JDCA) and supported by state Tourism Department and Directorate of Films Festival, Government of India, some 30 films will be screened.

Odisha chief minister, Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the 10th edition of the Film Festival on Friday.

The second day of the Festival on Saturday saw an impassioned talk by actress-director Nandita Das, who spoke on ‘Volunteering in Art’. Her talk prodded the audience to actively engage with issues that concern them. She emphasized the need for greater sensitivity among all people, especially the youth, encouraging more people to engage in the process of appreciation, promotion, protection and preservation of all the crafts and arts, and communities whose livelihood depends on it.

This year too, the award winning film makers, Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl conducted a Digital Filmmaking Workshop, attended widely by film enthusiasts interested in the technical aspects of film making. Live demonstrations on cinematography were held.

The films screened today dealt with a gamut of issues in the realm of arts and craft and issues that plague the craft communities. Some of the films screened today were ‘Majuli: The Second Dwarka’, ‘Handmade in India’, ‘Documentation of Clay: Image Makers of Clay’.

The highlighted of the day’s screening was ‘Let the Scream be Heard’ by Dheeraj Akolkar, a film shown in many festivals across the world. It delved into the issue of commercialization of art by using the example of the much publicized auction of the painting, ‘The Scream’ by renowned artist, Edvard Munch.

The day came to an end with an illustrated talk by eminent artist Paramjeet Singh who talked extensively about his large body of works, and linked it to the inaugural film made on him by Amit Dutta.

The Festival is the brainchild of Jatin Das and is supported by his brother Biren Das, a renowned film maker.

The 10th Film Festival will come to an end on 17th January 2016, the closing film is Adoor, a Journey in Frames by Rajeev Mehrotra, on the prolific film maker, Adoor Gopalkrishnan, who visited the Festival in its first edition in 2006.