KBF workshop for budding filmmakers generates four movies

Aspiring filmmakers sampled the fundamental practices of cinema at an allIndia workshop held by the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF), enabling them to come up with four short movies that portrayed a range of contemporary subjects.

Thirteen students of the 16-24 age-bracket participated from Kerala and outside of the state in the two-day event led by Delhi-based FootPrint Centre for Learning (FPCL) that mentors teenagers as well as young adults in the art and craft of digital story-telling. Led by FPCL-associated independent filmmakers Bidisha Roy Das and Priyanjana Dutta, the hands-on workshop at David Hall in Fort Kochi introduced the participants to the process of making movies — from ideation to the final cut. The duo, while letting the four girls and nine boys explore scriptwriting and storyboarding, guided them on the technical aspects of shooting as well as editing.

The students made four short films during the sessions that ended this Sunday, said Rebecca Martin, Programme Manager, KBF, which is organising the sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB-2025) slated to start on December 12. “We split them into four groups,” she revealed. “Two of them were from Kolkata and Hyderabad. We selected the 13 from 60 applicants.”

The short films ranged in subjects that included a slice of experience at a restaurant to love story. Bidisha is also a journalist and classical musician. She and Shillong-born Priyanjana are founders of FPCL’s annual Footprint Film Festival that opened in 2020.

The 110-day KMB-2025, with its theme titled ‘For the Time Being’, is being curated by artist Nikhil Chopra with HH Art Spaces, an artist-led organisation based out of Goa. The biennale will conclude on March 31, 2026.