FTII to host SAARC Media Year festival from October 21

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent | Pune
With the current year being the SAARC Media Year, students at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) have much to learn from their neighbouring countries at the Media Year celebration scheduled to be held at the FTII from October 21 to 24.

The event will showcase feature films from the SAARC countries - Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and India.

Also in the offing are interactions with critically-acclaimed filmmakers, such as Bangladesh's Tanvir Mokammel, Nepal's Pranay Limbu, Pakistan's independent filmmakar Sabiha Sumar, Bengali filmmaker Shohini Ghosh and editor of film Ramchand Pakistani, Aseem Sinha, to name a few.

Eminent Indian film scholar and faculty at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Ravi Vasudevan, will be part of the interactive sessions.

Speaking to Televisionpoint.com, Pankaj Rag, director, FTII, says, "Films based on sensitive socio-cultural issues from these regions will be screened during the festival. The event is meant to give our students a good perspective on societies around them."

Mokammel's 90-minute documentary, Shopnobhumi: The Promised Land tackles the dilemma faced by Bihari Muslims in the then-East-Pakistan or today's Bangladesh, after 1947.

Sumar's Dinner With The President: A Nation's Journey featuring former Pakistan's president Musharraf, questions the role of a military leader in initiating democracy, while Ghosh's Tales of the Night Fairies is an acclaimed documentary on the sex workers' movement in Kolkata.