The Indian Weekender, 14 May 2021

6 NEW ZEALAND
Friday, May 14, 2021
The Indian Weekender
Film making talent on display at 3rd NZ
Punjabi Short Film Festival mesmerises viewers
SANDEEP SINGH
The rich display of film-making talent
within the community has left one, and
all amazed at the 3rd NZ Punjabi Short
Film Competition held on Sunday, May 9 at
Event Cinemas, Manukau.
NZ Punjabi Multimedia Trust, Radio Spice
and Forum Films had come together to bring
another edition of the annual NZ Punjabi Short
Film Competition, which left the movie-buffs
in the community mesmerized with the quality
of creative talent within the community.
The event started at 6 pm with a meet and
greet and small official ceremony that witnessed
participation from key community leaders and
dignitaries, including Labour MP Dr Gaurav
Sharma, Dr Anae Neeru Levasa, National MP
Melissa Lee, Hon Consul of India Bhav Dhillon
and Judge Ajit Singh.
It was followed by a movie session where
all short films were played one after the other
and ending with a final award ceremony
giving away prizes to winners under
different categories.
Parminder Singh Papatoetoe of Radio
Spice told the Indian Weekender that more
than ten short films of around 10 minutes
each of different genres had entered into the
competition, which was judged by a panel of
three judges who were movie experts with
proven credentials. Later speaking about the
quality of films and the creative talent at the
display, Hon Consul of India Bhav Dhillon said,
“I was absolutely blown away with the level of
story-telling and film-production capabilities
within our community.
“Almost every story was able to touch to
our hearts and provoked some thoughts,” Mr
Dhillon said. Echoing similar sentiments,
Judge Ajit Singh said, “Many stories depicting
the daily life experiences of our migrant
communities were so relatable and spot-on and
were a testimony to the creative talent within
our community.”
“The films touched upon several important
issues within our broader Kiwi-Indian migrant
communities, in particular the neglect of
children due to parents working long hours,
depression and mental health issues leading
to self-harm and family violence and were
able to leave a meaningful impact on one and
all attending the film festival,” Judge Ajit
Singh said.
Most of the viewers concurred with the
judges’ choices of the top three films, Shor
(The silence), Alone and Bruno, which were
conferred first ($1000), second ($700) and third
($500) prize, respectively.
The prizes awarded in other category were
for Best director- Shor, Best Actor – Shor,
female lead (Kirti), Best Screenplay- Bruno,
Best DOP – Alone, Best Editing- Dumail, Beat
overall creative idea – Rishtey.
Forum Films’ role in putting
together festival acknowledged
Forum Films – the leading Film distributors –
had played an important role in putting together
this festival, shouldering the responsibilities
of film-screening and arranging event cinemas
and assisting in other logistical support.
Expressing thanks to Forum Films, Navtej
Randhawa of Radio Spice said, “We would
like to especially thank Pritesh Raniga and
Manpreet Singh of Forum Films for helping
us put together this film festival that has
become very important for the creative filmmaking
talents and movie-buffs in general
within our communities.”
The organizers of the event also expressed
thanks for the support they received from
sponsors of the event, including angel
immigration, Akal foundation, Kulwinder
Baath, Avtar Singh Pukekohe, Manjit Singh
Baath, Slumber Zone, Indo Kiwi Travel
Brokers, Prithipal Singh Basra and others,
without which they could not have pulled
together this film festival.
The New Zealand Punjabi Multimedia
trust is a non-profitable organization involved
in various community programmes for the
last few years with the goal of inspiring and
encouraging the local Punjabi Diaspora talent
to celebrate positive role models within the
growing community in New Zealand.
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