The five-day long Film Appreciation course conducted by Film & Television Institute of India(FTII), Pune in collaboration with Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) concluded here today.This is the first time that a Film Appreciation course by FTII was held in Jammu.Around 36 participants were presented certificates by Director FTII Pune Bhupendra Kainthola, in presence of Director DIPR, Muneer-ul-Islam, Joint Director Information Jammu Naresh Kumar, Deputy Director Field Publicity Division (I&B), Neha Jalali and other senior officers of Information Department.During the course, the participants were trained in different nuances of film appreciation and cinema. The event also witnessed screening of several famed Foreign and Indian movies and documentaries.The participants were also acquainted with the history of film industry, analyzing and producing movies, fiction and non-fiction documentaries and other dimensions of film making techniques by the resource persons Pankaj Saxena, Manish Bhardwaj and G B Singh from FTII.In his valedictory address, Director FTII said that the institute offers series of short term courses covering different aspects of film making the information of which is available on its website.
He said these courses are being held under FTII’s new outreach initiative Skilling India in Film Television (SKIFT) with a mission to democratize film education by conducting short courses across the country for film appreciation, screenplay writing, acting and digital cinematography. “We will be delighted to welcome maximum number of youth from Jammu and Kashmir for availing the opportunity in the field of their interest like cinematography, screen play writing, editing, acting and film direction” Kainthola said. He said that the courses are being conducted with top directors and producers from Film and Television industry acting as resource persons. He asked the DIPR department to select a group of talented youth for sponsorship to get advance professional training in film editing, fiction writing etc at FTII Pune.Speaking on the occasion, Muneer-ul Islam said the main objective of organizing the training programme was to reach out and hunt for latent talent among the state youth and encourage them to bring out creativity.The Director DIPR said the department will organize more such courses in future to provide common platform to the youth of twin regions to share their ideas and experiences.
He announced that a group of 20 students from J&K will be sent to get advance training in FTII Pune shortly. He said the department will also organize training courses for working journalists in IIMC and Internship programme for mass communication students with leading media organizations.The director further informed that the department will soon show its presence on social media by starting its channel.Later, the President Press Club Jammu Ashwani Kumar, Deputy Director Doordarshan Sanjit Khajuria and mass communication students shared their experiences of attending the five-day course and termed it as highly beneficial for them.Meanwhile, a cultural programme was also presented by Culture Wing of DIPR which was highly applauded.Deputy Director (AV) Nodal Officer, Rakesh Dubey presented vote of thanks.Among others, the programme was attended by Deputy Directors DIPR, Atul Gupta, Priyanka Bhat, Avleen Kour, Assistant Director Shabnam Jaipuria, Field Publicity Officer Priya Lakshmi, Information Officer Muzamil Zaman and veteran FTII alumni Ramesh Handoo.