Gangtok:Fifteen outstanding documentaries, including a few award winning short films from different parts of the country and other South Asian countries, were screened in a documentary film festival in Gangtok.The festival - Travelling Film South Asia 2007- is the first festival to be held here and was organized by Rachna Books, a local bookstore.
'Travelling Film South Asia' started by the Himal Association from Nepal had been offering a platform for documentary filmmakers and their audience to meet under a common roof since 1997. Over the years, Travelling Film South Asia has come to be a tradition that is reckoned the world over for the outstanding films it showcases. This festival features 15 outstanding documentaries to come out of South Asia in last two years.These films had travelled all over the world, giving audiences an opportunity to sample an exciting range of topics and themes, presentation styles and techniques. Some of the films to be screened in the next one week are Dirty Laundry (42 min) from South Africa, Final Solution (149 min) from Gujarat, Lanka: The Other Side of War and Peace (75 min) from Sri Lanka and Team Nepal (37 min) from Nepal.
The documentary film festival, organised by a local group, is in progress here. Fifteen documentary films from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, South Africa, Canada and India are being screened as part of the festival. “The festival is aimed at providing a platform to the documentary filmmakers to plan their future movies. This is for the first time that such a festival is being held in Sikkim,” said Mr Raman Shresta who played a Key role in organising the event. “The movies, such as Team Nepal, The Great Indian School Show, The City Beautiful and Teardrops of Karnaphuli have caught the attention of the state’s cine lovers,” Mr Shrestha, added. These movies were also screened in Madrid, Dutch, USA, Karachi, Holland, Spain and all other South Asian countries, he said. Free shows were organised for the students of Deorali Senior Secondary Girls High School (DSSGHS) recently.
“The objective was to let the students know the importance of documentary films. They showed keen interest in watching the documentary movies. We are now planning to let the students of Palzor Namgyal Girls Senior Secondary School to watch the movies,” Mr Shrestha, added. He informed that efforts are on to bring in other popular documentary movies based on environment to the Himalayan state. “We want the youths to come forward and support our endeavour,” Mr Raman said.
