In the mundane life of people, entertainment is the only thing that they look for. Talking about amusement, the first idea that clicks our mind is a movie. Films are a major form of entertainment. Sophisticated visual effects and Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) techniques takes the audience to a land of fantasy and make-believe. Coming to documentary films especially on wildlife, it adds a charm to this world of film making by connecting people with the natural world of fauna.

Keeping this notion in mind, the second Kolkata International Wildlife and Environment Film Festival (Kiweff) was held from 2 – 4 December at Star Theatre. Inaugurated by Mayor Shovon Chatterjee, it gave a distinctive opportunity to present films on wildlife to people, students and youths across the world, towns and cities.

Desham, a registered non-profit organisation that works for environmental protection, organised it as a free entry event for the film makers. Over 1910 entries from 115 countries made by enthusiastic and dynamic, fresh and experienced, film makers were received. Out of which only 64 best films were screened in 10 different venues across Kolkata to reach out to more people. For the next three days the city of joy enjoyed the first Film Festival on wildlife.

Day one saw the experts and leaders of the wild life conservation assemble at Gorky Sadan. An interactive session was held with the enthusiastic audience – Ms Belinda Wright, Mrs Pamela Gale Malhotra, Mr M.S. Reddy, Dr G.S. Rathore, Mr Krishnendu Bose, Ms Ankita Virhani, and Mr Subhendu Sharma, who are all conservationists, naturalists, and film makers spearheading the Wildlife and Environment protection efforts in diverse ways across the world.

There was a screening of film about a frog in Meghalaya named Thumbelina at Gorky Sadan on the second day. Followed by was a 90 minutes session that focused on film making especially capturing the wild through lenses. The second half was more enthralling as 1000 kids from Adhyapeeth Ramakrishna Sangha, an orphanage home was welcomed by Ms Debasree Roy, the chief advisor of the Festival, at the Pubrashree Auditorium, EZCC Salt lake. A short film making session with the enthusiastic kids was also conducted followed by a mesmerising dance performance in the evening by Dona Ganguli's troupe on the Kiweff theme song composed by musician Anupam Roy.

The last day culminated with the screening of films simultaneously at the multiple venues and with another interactive session at Gorky Sadan. Speakers like Mrs Parvati Barua, who came to the limelight after the BBC created the documentary Queen of the Elephants based on her life enlightened the audience with witty answers. The winners of the different categories films were announced on the same day. Almost 200 films out of 1910 were screened everyday at different venues across Kolkata.

The films were widely decided into five categories namely Animation, Documentaries, Feature film, Short film, and Public Service announcement films. Some of the notable award winning films included The day After Ganpati visarjan bagging the award for the best film in Public Service Announcement category and India: my garden smiles winning the special mention, from India. In the documentary film category, Best Film award was won by The sea of life (Spain), Kaziranga (USA) won for the best theme and the special mention was taken by The tiger who crossed the line (India).

The inaugural film Sirocco was a beautiful movie on the Sirocco parrots that are on the verge of extinction and seeks to explore who is responsible and how can it be prevented. Another favourite of people was the movie Sundarbans: it is not about the Tiger only. This movie showed all the animal and plant life that exists along with the Tigers.

Animation category was topped by the movie Robinson’s dream (Venezuela) along with Smiley an Iranian film that got the best Animation film for children award while the Best Theme award was handed over to winners of the film The little gray wolfey (Norway). Every drop counts (India) bagged the special mention award.

In the category of Feature films Killer catfish of kanawha from USA got the best film award and Mermaid from Iran taking the Best Theme, along with the Russian film Tragedy at Radger’s Bay as the special mention. When the heron flies (USA) came up on top to win the Best Short Film award while Moving forest (France) achieved the best theme award.

There were many other noteworthy films that were showed simultaneously like Sea of life and The tiger who crossed the line.

But the most important film of this year’s festival was Ashwika Kapoor’s film Thumblina. The little frog has been followed by a camera right from her infancy to the day she is grown up and finally finds a mate. This was a world premiere and for those who missed out can see the movie telecasted in the month of February 2017 when they will be shown on Nat Geo and Animal Planet.

Ex-St Mary’s, Dumdum