8th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (8th idsffk)-2015 Jury Members

Jury Documentary 1. Audrius Stonys Audrius Stonys began his creative activities in the last years of the Soviet Empire. His film Earth of the Blind received European Film Academy award “FELIX” as the Best European Documentary film. He is member of European Film Academy and European Documentary Network. Audrius thinks that the documentary film has not been born out of the desire to inform. Filmography Open the Door to him Who Comes, Baltic Way, Earth of the Blind, Apostle of ruins, Antigravitation , Flying over Blue Field, Harbour, Three Minutes after the Big Bang, Flight over Lithuania or 510 seconds of silence, Alone, The Last Car, Countdown, Ukuukai, The Bell, Four Steps. 2. Venu  Venu got graduated in cinematography from FTII, Pune. He has worked as cinematographer in over 80 feature films with legendary Indian directors like John Abraham, Mani Kaul, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Pamela Rooks, Padmarajan, Bharathan and M. T. Vasudevan Nair. He won the National Film Award for Best Cinematography three times ( Amma Ariyan, Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal, Miss Beatty’s Children, Ponthan Mada). In 1998, he did Daya his first directorial venture, a period fiction written by M. T. Vasudevan Nair. The movie was critically acclaimed and he received Kerala State Film Award for Best Debut Director for the same. In 2014, he directed his second movie Munnariyippu starring Mammootty. 3. R V Ramani R V Ramani, born in Mumbai, is a graduate in Physics from Mumbai University. He worked as a photojournalist in Mumbai and later graduated from the Film and TV Institute of India, Pune, with specialization in Motion Picture Photography. After the course he moved to Chennai in late 80’s and worked as a Cinematographer. Today he is one of the leading documentary filmmakers in India, who has established a unique style of his own, making independent impressionistic documentaries, which has found recognition both in India and abroad. He has travelled widely with his films and his films and Retrospectives have been presented in many International Film Festivals.

Jury Fiction 1. Altaf Mazid Altaf Mazid is a critic turned filmmaker. He is the winner of the best director prizes for Jibon (Life, 1998) in the Seventh Pyongyang Film Festival of Non-Aligned & Developing Countries 2000. In 2008 National Film Awards, he won two awards in two diverse categories – golden lotus for best film critic (shared) and silver lotus for best anthropological / ethnographic Film for Boliyapitaiersohokisootal (A duet with the river god). Mazid has reconstructed the first Assamese film Joymoti (1935) from found footage. His film Rahashyar Bitchaku, has won him Golden Conch in MIFF 2014. 2. Ari Allansson Ari Allansson is a film maker and a cultural entrepreneur. He has a MFA ( master in Fine Arts ) in film making from The International Film School of Paris. He runs Air d’Islande, an Icelandic cultural festival in Paris as well as Nomad Films. Through Nomad Films, Ari produces documentaries and short films, as well as hosting Project Green: A Sustainable Film Making Initative. Ari’s films have been screened at various festivals around the world. 3. Ashoke Viswanathan  Ashoke Viswanathan a mathematics graduate from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, is a post graduate in film direction from the Film and Television Institute of India. He had directed more than 150 films and television programmes including feature films, documentaries, tele films, music videos, and tele-serials. He has won two National Awards and one International Award. His films have been shown at the Commonwealth Film Festival, Manchester, the Pyongyang International Film Festival, and the Dhaka International Film Festival. He is a faculty at SRFTI and Visiting Professor at Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, at the Dept. of Cinema and Theatre, Tufts University, Boston, Dept. of Film Studies, Jadavpur University, and Dept. of Film Studies, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata.