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April 12, 2025 at 3:30:00 PM

AFS Cinema

Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation

Indie Meme Special 10th Year
Retrospective Showcase

Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know

India | Short

2023 | 15 mins | Kannada

Limited tickets available on site.

1. First Prize - LA CINEF- the 77th Edition of Festival De Cannes, France
2. Best Film in Indian Category - 14th Bengaluru International Short Film Festival 2024
3. Best First-Time Filmmaker Award - 4th Greece International Film Festival

The sun never rises again after an elderly woman steals the village's rooster, which throws the community into disarray. To bring the rooster back, a prophecy is invoked, sending the old lady's family into exile.

Film Heritage Foundation used the best surviving elements for the restoration – the original camera negative and the 35 mm print preserved at the NFDC – NFAI. Unfortunately, the sound negative was not available. We digitized the sound from the 35 mm print preserved at Film Heritage Foundation. The film elements were repaired by the Film Heritage Foundation conservators and the scanning was done in Prasad Lab in Chennai We found that due to the deterioration of the print, there were vertical green lines on many parts of the film. While the scanning and digital clean-up was done at Prasad under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, the grading, sound restoration and mastering was done at the lab in Bologna. Both Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, the cinematographer of the film, have been involved in the restoration of the film.

Restoration Process

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Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation

The screening will be preceded by a performance by Specific Thing.

Specific Thing is the project of local musician Román. Sometimes he plays by himself and sometimes he plays with his snazzy band — he loves to do both! And the music? It draws from folk, punk, pop, latin, communism, animals, friends... He likes to keep it cartoony, quick, and catchy. The band released an album in 2025 called "Now Is Actually Not A Good Time". Find more at @specificthing on Instagram.

Meet Specific Thing

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About the Artist

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Photo courtesy: 

Film Heritage Foundation

Chidananda S Naik is alumni of FTII, where he graduated with Post Graduate Certificate in TV Direction. He won the Cinéfondation 1st Prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival for his film 'Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know...' which is his final project at FTII. He pursued his passion for filmmaking after studying medicine at Mysore Medical College.

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Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation

Trailer

Credits

Crew:

Director:   

Chidananda S Naik

Writer:

Chidananda S Naik

Producers:

Film & Television Institute Of India (FTII), Pune

Film Editor:

Manoj Gowda

Featured Cast:

     ​       

Vishwas B S

Jahangeer M S

Vasudha Bharighat

Anup Gowda

Kushal B K

Sanju Chavan

Restoration Effort Led By: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation

 

Restoration Credit:

Restored by Film Heritage Foundation in association with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul), the cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the director Shyam Benegal. Funding supported by Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul)

Thank you to our community partners for this screening!

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