R ARIVANANTHAM
NE ENTERTAINMENT BUREAU
Aiming to impart quality filmmaking education to the wannabe directors from the lower strata of the society, Tamil film producer-director Vetri Maaran has announced the opening of International Institute of Film and Culture here on Tamil New Year Day.
As a pay back to the society, this institute will bear the cost of Post Graduate Diploma Course in Film Making to the talented and underprivileged youths from hinterland, Maaran said.
Announcing this at a press conference on Wednesday at his mentor Balu Mahendra’s Studio at Saligramam, Vetri Maaran said he along with the former Loyola College Professor S Rajanayagam and like-minded persons have joined hands in establishing the International Institute of Film and Culture.
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“Recognizing that filmmaking is essentially a people-process with socio-political and cultural ramifications, and adopting this motto, ‘Through Screens to Social Equity’ as its guiding principle, the International Institute of Film and Culture has come into existence,” they announced.
The selection process would be different from the existing institutes. IIFC would give priority to the first graduates of the family, youths from underprivileged sections with necessary talents but denied the platform to groom in the film industry, Vetri Maaran added.
Mentor of IIFC and former Loyola College Professor S Rajanayagam explained, “Taking a multi-disciplinary, integral and holistic approach to cinema, the programme is designed as a harmonious blend of creative impulse, cine-technological expertise, commercial acumen, cultural rootedness, ecological sensitivity, and social responsibility.
Tamil Film producer Vetri Duraisamy, son of former mayor and philanthropist Saidai Duraisamy, has come forward to offer the place for the training institute, hostel and taking care of selected students, Vetri Maaran said.
Salient features of the course
- Continuous surveillance of social-political environment with intermittent cultural immersion;
- Guided journey into the literary universe particularly of Thamizh and extensive exposure to the best of world cinema;
- Rigorous and innovative training in the art and craft of cinema.
- The triple-star dynamics in selecting and forming students, the primary stakeholders, sets IIFC stand apart-
- The morning star phase – identifying raw and original talents across the districts of Tamil Nadu, with an unequivocal commitment to privileging the economically and socially underprivileged;
- The guiding star phase– providing a conducive ambience to nurture and refine their cine-tech competencies and life-skills;
- The super star phase – making them emerge eventually as ‘serious entertainers’ technically, creatively, ethically empowered to produce wholesome and healthy, commercially viable and aesthetically appealing entertainment.
Eligibility Criteria
- Educational Qualification: Candidates with any (non-media) degree. Exceptions in exceptional cases.
- Age Limit: 21 – 25
- Geo-Cultural Background: Tamil-speaking and from Tamil Nadu (preferably one per district)
- Socio-Economic Preferability: socially, economically underprivileged; first generation learners
Selection process
❖ Five-Step Selection for 100% Grants: Initial Scrutiny, Written Test, Academic Interview, Professional Interview, and Home Visit
❖ Total Intake: 35-40 Students (one from each district)
For further details, do visit: www.iifcinstitute.com
