NEW DELHI: ‘Kashmir - Before our Eyes‘, a three-day Festival of films on Kashmir is to be held at the Films Division auditoria in Mumbai from 31 May.
The festival has been curated by filmmakers Ajay Raina and Pankaj Rishi Kumar and will screen shorts, documentaries and feature films.
The first date of the Festival is devoted to ‘Roots of the conflict: The nationalist discourse‘ with films like Storm over Kashmir by B D Garga and A Diary of Aggression by N V K Murthy (both made by Films Division), followed by a discussion on the conflict between India and Pakistan vis-?-vis Kashmir.
The Special India Preview will feature the multi-award winning feature Valley of Saints by Musa Sayeed from the US.
The second day will be devoted on ‘Paradise: Kashmir then and now‘ with films Before My Eyes by Mani Kaul; Lolaab - A Valley In The Himalayas by Mohiuddin Mirza, and Paradise On A River Of Hell by Abir Bashir Bazaz and Meenu Gaur which got the PSBT Special Recognition for the Third Karachi Film Festival, Pakistan, 2003.
This will be followed by a discussion in which Moiuddin Mirza, Piyush Shah, Jyoti Swaroop, and Siddhartha Gigoo will take part, moderated by Ajay Raina.
The same evening, there will be feature on the theme of exile, disappearance, dislocation, The Last Day by Siddhartha Gigoo and the non-fiction Tell them, the tree they had planted has now grown by Ajay Raina which won the MIFF award for PSBT.
This will be followed by reading from The Garden of Solitude by Siddartha Gigoo.
Later, the non-fiction Where Have You Hidden My Crescent Moon by Iffat Fatima, Autumn‘s Final Country by Sonia Jabbar, and the feature Bub (Father) by Jyoti Sarup will be screened.
The last day will see the screening of Jashn-e-Azadi by Sanjay Kak, Pather Chu (The Play is on) by Pankaj Rishi Kumar for PSBT, Apour ti Yapour. Na Jang Na Aman. Yei Chu Talukpeth (Between Border and the fence. On the edge of the map) by Ajay Raina for PSBT and the feature Harud by Aamir Bashir.