By Br Aliester D’Souza for BISMumbai

The Awards Ceremony of Kahaani: MumbaiSalesians Short Film Festival, was live-streamed on 11 February 2023. With this ceremony, the festival drew to a close.

The idea for a film festival was conceptualised in mid-July during the meeting of the Social Communication Commission of the Province. Through this venture, the commission aimed at empowering young people to tell stories that make a difference through the medium of short films. This idea was shared at various forums, especially at the Principal’s Meet and the Meeting of Local Social Communication Delegates.

A workshop on ‘Techniques of Filmmaking’ was held at Don Bosco Provincial House on 26 and 27 September 2022, in which 22 young people had participated. This workshop was held with a view to train a representative from each of the SDB communities of the Province with the skills and knowledge they would need to participate in the festival. 20 films were submitted for the competition and 6 were nominated for the Awards Ceremony.

Addressing the participants during the ceremony, Fr Savio Silveria - the Provincial of the Province of Bombay, said: “The film festival has been an opportunity for young voices to be heard.” Speaking on the power of social media and the role of films in shaping opinions, he said that films are indeed a powerful tool to get the message across creatively.

Most of the participants had tried their hand at filmmaking for the first time. This festival was an eyeopener to the difficulties involved in the process of filmmaking. While films are an ensemble of a variety of skills involving cinematography, editing and screenplay, they are also a testament to teamwork and organisational skills. During the ceremony, Mr Joy Fernandes, who has played a pivotal role in the organisation of the festival, said that the participants would have realised that “...no matter the technology and the glamorous equipment, because if one does not have engaging content, the entire film falls flat. Therefore there is the need to promote good content creators.”

‘Snooze’, a film submitted by Ivan Dabhi won the award for the Best Film, while ‘Stop’ and ‘Wheel of Time’ submitted by Aaron D’Sa and Akshay Hiwale respectively, won the second and third place. There were four other categories of awards: Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing and Direction.

The festival has been a blessing to the Social Communication Commission of the Province, that now finds itself closer to the reality of the various Salesian institutions, especially, in the field of communication.