Memories of the 70’s bring with it memories about cinema. Those days, considered to be the highpoint of 'new wave' or 'art film' and film society movement in Keralam, one felt a sort of frisson nouveau in the air, a feeling of being at a turning point, as if something were about to happen.

Film society movement introduced world cinema and the world of cinema to the public on a scale that was unimaginable and impossible earlier. It worked in the fissure between contemporary Malayalam cinema and world cinema, opened up a new world before the cineastes and helped create a new sensibility. The concerns, techniques and imaginary of both were worlds apart for the neophytes.

16mm tries to trace back the trajectory of film society movement in Keralam and its relationship with a machine – 16mm film projector. Now abandoned as an obsolete technology, 16mm projection was the soul and source of the movement that time.

K R MANOJ was formerly editor of DRISHYATHALAM, a journal in Malayalam for film & video studies. His debut film AGNI (short fiction) was screened in various festivals including IFFI 2004.