Goan film makes it to Chelsea Film Festival
the goan network
CHRISTINE MACHADO
'Celebrating Love' a three minutes and 26 seconds wedding film by Goa's Navin Studio is all set to premiere at the upcoming Chelsea Film Festival-2015. Directed by Narendra Gaonkar and edited by his son Navin Gaonkar, the short film is a combination of moments of about 10-12 weddings that the studio shot for during the 2014-15 wedding season. RJ Alfwold Silveira has done the voice over for the film.
Interestingly, in this age of fast paced social media, it was Instagram that made this achievement happen. “We had put up an Instagram post announcing that we are working on a short film and the organisers probably found us through the hash tag and informed us about the submissions for the film festival,” says Navin Gaonkar. The team then decided to browse the official website and discovered that the theme of the festival was global issues. “One of the biggest problems today is the animosity between different religions. India is all about celebration and is a place where different religions live together. Hence through this film we have tried to show the love that exists between different religions,” says Narendra, who has been part of the wedding photography business for almost 25 years.
“ It is a wonderful feeling that we got selected on the first shot. We have also submitted it for the London Short Film Festival which will be held in January 2016 and International Film Festival of Prayag in Allahabad in February 2016,” adds Navind. The studio is already working on their next regional feature film 'Mogan' which will be in English and Konkani.
“The story is about a Goan shack owner who falls for a foreign girl. It is based on a true story,” reveals Navin.
