It is appropriate that the Kolkata Film Festival should respond to the overwhelming desire among aspiring short filmmakers to get into a profession that now has enormous prospects.

The Kolkata festival itself has announced attractive awards for short films apart from bigger prizes earmarked for feature films in specific categories. The short film section has drawn an encouraging response which has been given another impetus after the rule that films need not be censored before being entered.

Festivals have room for films of any length and, should a film grab a prize, it becomes an endorsement for the initiative that has been taken. Most of the short fiction films now in circulation are by first-timers. They have pooled their resources to make films on ideas that are somewhat outside the mainstream and reveal attempts at technical experiments that have become possible on account of the digital medium. Many have emerged from media schools where they are taught the fundamentals of handling video cameras, writing scripts, handling actors and situations and completing the online editing and mixing within the limited means.

The fact that most of these efforts are self-financed is evident from some of the amateurish work in circulation. But an event like the Mumbai International Film Festival held under the banner of Films Division has confirmed that short filmmakers need to strive for the professionalism that is now quite evident.

Selections from the MIFF are often presented in Kolkata to give audiences and short filmmakers in this region an idea of the rapid strides that have been made elsewhere. This is due to two reasons. The filmmakers, mostly young, have received the required training and can afford to give convincing shape to their cinematic ideas. Second, these filmmakers have found more commercial support from organisations that have a variety of interests. They have found an attractive platform in the MIFF which has a wider reach than festivals held in other parts of the country.

Many of these young short filmmakers have used this form as a stepping stone to the larger world of feature films. The fact that Mumbai has bigger market for advertisement and corporate films does help them find the means of sharpening their skills and then looking for bigger opportunities. By comparison, filmmakers in other regions are handicapped though there is nothing to prevent them from going beyond their roots to demonstrate their professional skills. The enthusiasm is evident, nevertheless. An incredible number of small organisations has been floated in Kolkata and other parts of the state with the objective of making shorts and documentaries. Some make use of established actors and crews but the majority depend on newcomers.

Most of them are trying to make the best use of the digital format to picturise stories that are written within the organisation. Only rarely does one find a unit reaching out more ambitiously to a story by Tagore or Manik Bandopadhyay since that could raise too many questions and eventually become a hindrance. It is safer to move into open territories though the final work may not stand out in terms of originality and technical assurance.

The awards announced by the Kolkata festival may, in fact, serve as an incentive to improve standards. With the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, St Xavier&’s College and Jadavpur University and other educational institutions turning out fresh graduates every year with the technical skills required for making films independently, there is no reason why one region should lag behind the standards set in Mumbai. There was also a time when the Short Film-Makers’ Association of Eastern India had an impressive record of providing an alternative platform for intelligent documentaries. To this has now been added the efforts of organisations like Kalpanirjhar, which has been presenting its own selections of some of the best short fiction work from around the world for several years.

Thus the ground has been prepared and the talent emerging from media schools has no dearth of enthusiasm. The world of feature films has expanded rapidly on account of digital technology. While much of it is inconsequential, a small group of promising new names has come to the surface in the past few years and, thanks to marketing strategies, has generated a good amount of enthusiasm on the commercial circuit. There is no reason why the same story cannot be repeated for short films.