Film festival to mark Mother Teresa canonization
September 6, 2016
Film festival to mark Mother Teresa canonization
A four-day film festival celebrating the life and mission of Blessed Mother Teresa was being held in her hometown of Kolkata in eastern India, in the run-up to her canonization or sainthood ceremony on September 4 in the Vatican. Predominantly featuring documentaries, the August. 26-29 Mother Teresa International Film Festival (MTIFF) took centre stage at the Nandan multiplex, Kolkata’s prestigious film and cultural centre owned by the state government.
Organized by the Indian chapter of SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication, the film festival will travel to numerous locations around India and then go overseas. Kolkata Mary Ward Social centre team was part of this Film Festival. Children from Hidden Domestic Child Labour project and Sonagachi Red light area project visited the Film Festival and enjoyed a lot watching films on Mother Teresa.
The four-day-long movie carnival at the state-run Nandan multiplex screened a selection of 23 best foreign and Indian films ever made on or inspired by Teresa.The festival showcased the best and the biggest repertoire of films and documentaries made on and inspired by the life of the Nobel laureate.
The festival opened with the screening of the 82-minute-long documentary ‘Mother Teresa’ by Petrie Productions (1986). Another big highlight was’Mother Teresa & Me’, which is personal documentary narrating the journey of Goutam Lewis, abandoned by his parents in Kolkata but rescued by Teresa who went on to become a successful entrepreneur in London.
‘Love till it hurts’ made by Pauline Sisters,Emmy Award-winning directors Ann and Jeannette Petrie who made ‘Mother Teresa:The Legacy’ which was the official film for the occasion of her Beatification in Rome.
Here are few glimpses of the event.