HYDERABAD: The city will be hosting `Vaatavaran', an environment film festival, where a host of national and international films will be screened at some of the prominent places in October and November .

`Vaatavaran' is held in only metros each year and this is the first time that the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests is bringing it to the twin cities. The likely venues are Ravindra Bharati, Indira Priyadarshini Auditorium and Hari Hara Kala Bhavan.

According to Director of Andhra Pradesh National Green Corps. W.G. Prasanna Kumar, the festival will also give an opportunity for local green films to be screened. Prior to that, NGC is organising a students' film festival on environment and development in association with Loyola Academy on July 15 at Indira Priyadarshini auditorium.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Mr. Kumar along with founder and Head of Department of Mass Communication Fr. Lourduraj said 12 documentary films on environment and social issues made by students of the college as part of their curriculum would be screened.

Ten of the films were made by third year students while two were made by second year students of the Academy covering diverse topics like caste, tsunami, snakes, national parks, child labour, afforestation, aged parents, drug abuse etc.

"We want our students to be good communicators with ethics and social conscience. All the films of two minutes to 10 minutes duration have been conceived, scripted, shot and edited by students. The festival will give them self confidence as it serves as a platform to showcase their talent," said Fr. Lourduraj.

Providing support

The NGC director observed that the campaign for environment protection had been well served with the involvement of mass communication students. His department would be ready to provide support, including logistics, locations, and story ideas to help young filmmakers in make documentaries on environment.

The films would be sent to other documentary film festivals and also be circulated in educational institutions. Mr. Kumar said environment education had been made a compulsory subject for all graduate students since last year. It would further be integrated in the courses of class one to intermediate level from this year. The course material would be prepared by NGC.

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