EARTH NEWS SERVICE|
Srinagar, Dec 09|15: A two-day international film festival titled ‘Doosra Chashma’ started in Kashmir University’s Media House Auditorium on Wednesday. The event featured gendercentric films aiming to appraise gender sensitivity across different cultures, traditions and languages, and looking at things from a gender perspective. The festival was organized by Kashmir University’s Media Education Research Centre (MERC) in collaboration with Population First, a Mumbai based NGO. It followed a two-day Media and Gender Workshop that earlier concluded on Tuesday. Coordinator MERC and Filmmaker, Faruq Masudi inaugurated the festival. In total 13 films were screened on Day 1 which included 12 short-films made in various parts of India and an animated film from Denmark. The festival started with a two-minute non-verbal short-film ‘Is it just a game?’ by Shakuntala Kulkarni, a Mumbai-based renowned filmmaker and painter. The film was based on a theme of ‘gendered imbalances, sexual harassment and a pervasive sense of anxiety’. It was followed by a set of four short films: Call 103, How far should a Woman go?, Chasni, and The Ballad of Leela-Laila; all of them carrying a theme of ‘Dreaming free: Exploring Shades of Gendered Resistance’. During a panel discussion, Peerzada Ashiq deliberated on the films screened and appreciated the camera work and the themes that they portrayed. “About Aalav (the short-film on Kashmiri Pandit family), I rate it as one of the best films shown during the day, actually in Kashmir it is difficult to bring a closure to emotions among all communities given the circumstances faced by each of them,” Ashiq said. On the occasion, Director Population First, Dr A.L. Sharda said that there is a need to have a 360 degree approach to gender based sensitivity.
