Loyola Academy’s campus in Alwal was brimming with enthusiasm over the past weekend as the Department of Mass Communication hosted Infocus — a national film festival.
The first day was attended by the likes of Praveen Sattaru and Dharmendra Kakarala from the PSV Garuda Vega movie team. Naga Shaurya was present too. While the festival screened many well-acclaimed movies from the entire country, the students were also treated to a workshop by Satish Kasetty, a well-known movie director who has won many National Awards.
Ranjana
Says Rini Anweshi, a lecturer from the Mass Communication Department, “Infocus 2017 was aimed at bringing out the true talent of students and showcasing it to the world. Today, mass media has the power to break every stereotype that Indian society is affected with. If youth is encouraged to conquer these stereotypes, it will be a wonderful world for all of us.”
Director Tammareddy Bharadwaj, writer B.V.S. Ravi and film critic Mahesh Kathi were the guests of honour on the second day. Tammareddy spoke about the importance of short films and urged young filmmakers to always keep society in mind while making films, whereas Mahesh Kathi spoke about the right to freedom of speech and expression with respect to films, culture and society.
Manaswini, the cultural coordinator, says, “I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the festival as it helped me learn how to organise and plan events of such a large scale. I also enjoyed all the films that were screened.”
Many competitions like dubsmash, dress and express and a live DJ hunt were organised and the students participated with enthusiasm. Srikanth Polisetti, author of CGPA, conducted a workshop on ‘Story writing and getting your books published’.
Rithika and Sabya during the event
“Infocus helped me get in touch with the huge world of films and gave me clarity about my future plans,” says Aftab, a second year Mass Communication student.
The winner of the short film category was Vijay Kumar, whose film Addillu was appreciated by all while the documentary, Musi — The fading river by Aalap Tanna won the first prize in the documentary category. Well-known short film director Jennifer Alphonse gave away the prizes to the winners.
