Day 2 of the IFFK was quite eventful and very different from the calm Day 1. At Kalabhavan, at the screening of Andrea Magnani’s Easy, delegates were miffed up when the doors closed after all the seats were filled. After they started raising a furore, the guards finally had to let them in and the movie ran to a literally packed house with people filling every inch of the floor and the stairs in the theatre.
At the screening of the Argentine movie Symphony for Ana, a serpentine queue that covered the street outside the Tagore Theatre was seen. However, when the unreserved delegates, who had been waiting for over two hours were informed that the gates were closed, the situation heated up in no time. From hoots and catcalls to songs and sloganeering, the delegates gathered in front of the theatre and demanded an explanation from the Chalachitra Academy. “We are ready to sit on the floor, what’s their problem?” a delegate cried. When the police arrived to pacify the protestors, they even broke into a parody song, which ended up in the police, delegates and the organisers splitting their sides.
At noon, the canteen ran out of lunch on the second consecutive day and had to refund the coupon payments to the long-waiting delegates. In the evening, a flash mob was staged on the premises of Tagore Theatre by SFI, PuKaSa and Manaveeyam Culture Collective in protest against religious fundamentalism and moral policing against the hijab-clad girls who danced in Malappuram.
The day was an eventful one with no untoward incidents. Hope the spirit of movies keep people bonded as the days progress.
