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Puri gearing up for film fest

BHUBANESWAR: The pilgrims’ paradise of Puri will soon be the annual pilgrimage for filmmakers and film enthusiasts from across the globe as the seventh edition of the BYOFF (Bring Your Own Film Festival) unfolds there from February 21 to 25.

The Pink House premises on the beach of the Bay of Bengal will be the venue of the festival as usual, according to the hosts who are friends and filmmakers. “BYOFF is a film festival with a difference. It is a festival without hierarchy, competition, jury and awards. “Filmmakers apart, artistes from other disciplines like music, theatre, painting, sculpture, dance, literature and photography are also encouraged to participate and show their work in the festival with a flexible format,” said Kapilas Bhuyan, national award winner, documentary filmmaker and cultural commentator for newspapers.

“BYOFF can be best described as an informal and intimate gathering of artistes with films in the backdrop where screenings go on early into the morning hours inside the make-shift tents and in the open air as well,” said Susant Misra, another national award winner and feature filmmaker from Orissa. It is an alternative platform for filmmakers, he said and explained that the idea was to have a festival away from the oppressive atmosphere of bureaucratic control of big cities and where anybody with or without films could participate. The participants of BYOFF themselves were the volunteers and the organisers of its future editions, he pointed out.

The first edition of the event received rare response and above 300 filmmakers and film connoisseurs gathered and the participation had been growing with each passing year, the hosts said.

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