Dharamshala film fest to start Oct 24

The second edition of Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF), starting Oct 24, will showcase a mix of 30 films, including fiction, documentaries, short movies and experimental cinema.

"This year's journey has been in trying to define what the festival is about. We will have independent films, documentaries, panel discussions and master classes," documentary filmmaker and DIFF director Ritu Sarin told reporters at a press meet here Tuesday.

The international line up includes Indian premiere of Russian documentary "Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer" by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, Polish filmmaker Jacek Borcuch's "Lasting" and Australian director Kate Shortland's "Lore".

Indian documentaries will also be in focus with the screening of Nishtha Shah's "Gulabi Gang", filmmaker Amit Virmani's "Menstrual Man" and Anand Patwardhan's "Jai Bhim Comrade".

"We have also focused on a lot of films from all over the world with children protagonists. The range of these films was incredible," said documentary filmmaker and DIFF director Tenzing Soman.

The films in the section include Kim Mordaunt's "The Rocket", which will take the viewers to Laos, is said to have extraordinary performance from former street kid Sitthiphon Disamoe as Ahlo, and Chilean writer-director Dominga Sotomayor's "Thursday Till Sunday", about a family's car journey.

Brazilian entry to the Oscars "Neighbouring Sounds", Alison Klayman's "Ai Wei Wei: Never Sorry", and Prasanna Vithanage's "With you, Without You" will also be screened at the fest.

Marathi filmmaker Umesh Kulkarni has also undertaken a short film initiative.

"Short films are my first love. I have decided to screen eight short films dealing with different subjects," Kulkarni said at the launch.

He will bring films like "Local" by Bharat Pawar and animation film "Goodmorning Mumbai" for the film buffs.