Films celebrating football in six different languages will be a part of the upcoming Serendipity Arts Festival 2018, which will get underway along with the International Film Festival of India on 22 November, organisers said on Thursday.
According to the curator of the segment Jan Tilman Schwab, Football — A Beautiful Life, will showcase a diverse range of football-related film from Spain, Lebanon, Brazil, Germany, Iceland and India, which blend together with Goa’s identity as a football loving state.
“The films chosen represent almost all continents, and include short and feature films, documentaries, fiction, and comedies that each tell stories of triumph and setbacks. The audience will get opportunities to laugh and weep,” Schwab said, adding that the films would be screened as part of a six-day programme.
The Serendipity Arts Festival, billed as India’s first multidisciplinary arts event, is the official collateral event of the 49th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which gets underway from 22 November.
“The Football Film screening programme is part of a series of multidisciplinary arts activations that will energise Goa in the lead up to Serendipity Arts Festival 2018. Initiatives like these are an integral part of the Foundation’s mission of making the arts accessible and developing arts audiences both in numbers and in diversity,” the organisers of the event said in a statement issued here on Tuesday.
“The film programme will celebrate football, a game deeply embedded in the history and culture of Goa, which resonates with Goans better than any other sport. The films demonstrate the unifying power of football that brings individuals together and creates a sense of community,” the statement said.
“Spotlighting Goa’s most loved sport through film, the project extends the Festival’s interdisciplinary approach and inclusive community programming that is continually sensitive to the cultural nuances of its host city,” the statement further said.
In its previous two editions, the Serendipity Arts Festival, which was hosted in the state capital had attracted more than 4,00,000 visitors.