Fade In: Documentary Festival
Kristu Jayanti College Film Club in association with Department of Media Studies organised its first-ever ‘virtual’ Fade In: Documentary Festival on 24th October 2020. The chief guest of the event was Dr. C.S. Venkiteswaran, a well-known documentary filmmaker and film critic. The presidential address was given by Rev. Dr. Augustine George, Principal, Kristu Jayanti College.

Dr. Venkiteswaran appreciated the efforts of the college and its management for organising the virtual fest. While the COVID-19 pandemic has caused loss of life and uncertainty, Dr. Venkiteswaran sees these testing times as an opportunity to reflect and introspect on our lives. He says, “Getting back to the old normal is not a solution to the pandemic, rediscovering a new normal is.” According to him, the time we spend moulds us- morally, spiritually, and in terms of creative imagination. Dr. Venkiteswaran added that, a documentary unlike other filming genres is a reflection of the real world. It allows a person to critically understand and explore the world around him. The process of documentary making is a journey of discoveries, full of learning and surprises.”

Around 150 students were part of the event. During the interactive session, participants raised the questions on OTT platforms, historical perspective of documentary etc.

The interactive session was then followed by Documentary Screening. Student Directors shared their experiences and views on the process of the documentary making, and gave a few words of advice to their juniors. Altogether the virtual fest was both insightful and entertaining, making it a successful event.

Fade In 2019: Intra Collegiate film festival
15 years ago, Kristu Jayanti College, Bangalore constituted a film club for the film lovers within the campus. FADE-IN, the flagship program of film club was started in Kristu Jayanti College which is a humongous interest for film lovers. FADE-IN 2019 a two intra-collegiate film fest was inaugurated on 23 August 2019 at 9.30 AM. Shri. TR Gopalakrishnan, Former Editor, The Week was the Chief Guest. He addressed the students on the career scope as film Journalists and the new style that can be adopted from the film technique for breaking news. “The trend of our generation was going to a movie together and now it is fading away due to the unlimited availability of visual entertainment through various gadgets”, he opined.”

Imagine producing news as a cinema on a show time basis, people will get special interest to watch the news if that’s the case” he added. Also shared so many innovative views on emerging techniques from film and journalism to tell a real-life story and enlightened the Jayantians in an extraordinary manner. “The two-day fest enabled us to appreciate the different genres of films prepared at the different era with different techniques”, said Sachin Nair, III semester JPCS Student.

The number of efforts put by the management and coordinators to make the fest successful was admirable. Fade In 2019 began by paying homage to Shri. Girish Karnad, the popular playwright, actor, administrator, and public intellectual. One of the famous scripts “the blaze presentation” was played and students were enlightened by the screenplay in it. The two-day fest screened 06 films from Indian and International panorama.

Fade In 2018: Intra Collegiate film festival
The film club of Kristu Jayanti College in association with Department of Journalism and Mass Communication organized a two-day intra-collegiate festival at Mini Audi III, on 6 & 7 of August 2018. The Chief Guest for the event was Prof. N. Manu Chakravarthy, a National Award Winner and also an academician with an experience of 38 years. “Cinema can’t be held responsible for creating the good or bad character or bring about revolution instead cinema is made as such things already exist in the society,” said Prof. N. Manu Chakravarthy. Contrasting to the fact that movies are a huge investment, he believes that though movies are a huge investment, they aren’t just investment or a source of gaining the invested capital, but is more as it educates of what the society is all about to the people.

Illuminating further, he opined, “Many people have started writing reviews which are of commercial movies, which include some story plot and credits. In art movies, such things are not possible. They help you to theorize and bring into picture things mostly metaphoric by the screenplay and director’s mind.” He also threw some light into the work of Shri Girish Kasarvalli and said “Kasarvalli made characters of strong women, who fight their own dilemma and win as one attractive factor in all his films. Apart from that, it was rain which was present in all his work.” Cinema is that art which is distinct from all other works of art at the same time is not too, it can deal with every fundamental issue of the entire world. The possibilities are endless- diverse representation of the world, he added.

Other dignitaries on the dais were Rev. Fr. Josekutty PD, Principal, Dr. Gopakumar AV, Dean of Humanities, Dr. Juby Thomas, Coordinator film club, Mr. Nithin T Mathew, the student representative. Around 200 Students had the opportunity to watch and discuss 06 Indian and international films.

‘Fade in', Film Festival
Film and Photography Club of Kristu Jaynti College is organizing a two-day film festival ‘Fade in:’ on July 27 and 28. Shri. Georgekutty AL, Founder Editor of Deep Focus and Secretary of Bangalore Film Society inaugurated the event. ‘Fade in' is an annual event conducted by the Journalism & Mass communication and English Departments of our college to cultivate serious film viewing among our students and also to expose them to artistic films.This year being the 25th death anniversary of legendary film maker Satyajit Ray, ‘Fade in:’ pays a tribute by screening the notable works of Ray, including ‘Pather Panchali’, and ‘Charulatha’. ‘Fade in:’ also plans to screen masterpieces like Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Great Dictator’, Tom Tykwer’s ‘Run Lola Run’, Asghar Farhadi’s ‘Salesman’ and M. Manikandan’s ‘Kakka Muttai’. Around 200 students participated in the programme.