Film South Asia '07, festival of Southasian documentaries, was held in Kathmandu from 11-15 October 2007. The festival was a grand success with over 9,000 people attending. It fulfilled its objective of being the forum to showcase the best documentaries made in the past two years on Southasian subjects. FSA '07 also brought together filmmakers from all over Southasia to discuss non-fiction films in the region, and promote the culture of watching documentaries.
The sixth edition of this biennial festival was held over five days at a duplex cinema in downtown Kathmandu. The first four days of the festival were dedicated to showcasing outstanding films, judged on the basis of originality and variety. Following up on FSA ’07, to let our hair seriously down, FSA organisers hosted a festival of Southasian Music Videos (FSA-MV). Three curators from Southasia—Farjad Nabi from Lahore, Paromita Vohra from Bombay and Suraj Singh Thakuri from Kathmandu gave the audience a glimpse of past, present and future of music videos in their respective countries.
FSA '07 saw a tremendous increase in the number of films submitted for the festival. From an average of 140 films in the past festivals, FSA '07 received a record number of 275 films from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. FSA '07 also witnessed a significant growth in the number of films from Sri Lanka, and Nepal as compared to last FSA editions. Of the 48 films screened at the main festival, 45 films were in the competition, and three were in the non-competitive section. The directors of 25 of these films represented their work at the festival. The filmmakers presented their work to the audience, and were also available for discussions and Q&As after the screening of their films. Members of the audience also got the opportunity to interact with them informally during the festival at the venue.
A three-member jury opened the festival on the afternoon of 11 October at Kumari Cinema, one of the premier film theatres in the city. The slogan of the festival this year was 'Dare to DOCUMENTary'. The slogan salutes the work of the documaker for having the courage and the commitment to tackle the world, and also challenges them to explore more. FSA '07 opened with Living Goddess by Ishbel Whitaker, a British filmmaker. The film focusses on the lives of Kumaris during the People's Movement of April 2006.
Forty-five films of the main festival were screened back-to-back in two halls over four days. Screenings were very well attended in both theatres, which had a capacity of 300 and 234 people. With the latest high-resolution projectors, the quality of the films was highly appreciated by the Kathmandu audience, film enthusiasts, critics and filmmakers representing their films.
On the afternoon of 14 October, the last day of the main festival, the three-member jury—Saeed Mirza, a well known Bombay-based filmmaker and the Chair of the jury, Farjad Nabi, a Lahore-based filmmaker and activist, and Kedar Sharma, a filmmaker from Kathmandu—announced and gave away the awards. The Ram Bahadur Trophy for Best film was awarded to Ironeaters by the Bangladeshi filmmaker Shaheen Dill-Riaz. Ironeaters is a gripping account of farmers of northern Bangladesh who are forced to migrate and seek work as ship-breakers in Chittagong. The jury citation for the award read: "For its gritty, humane and shocking storytelling of migrant workers in the ship-breaking industry of Chittagong, this visually gripping narrative goes behind the scenes to lay bare the naked injustice existing amongst us on a daily basis."
The Second Best Film Award went to Remembrance of Things Present by Chandra Siddan, about a teenager trying to deal with an arranged marriage. The Best Debut Film award was given to A Life with Slate by Dipesh Kharel on the poetic dimensions of slate-mining in a Nepali village and Sara Singh's The Sky Below on the myth and reality of Partition. The first, second and Best Debut Film carried a purse of USD 2,000, 1,000 and 1,000 respectively.
This year, FSA decided to institute a Ram Bahadur fund to foster good schooling at Rayale village, and support needy students. An amount of Rs 100,000 was set-aside for the purpose to be administered by elders and educators of the village. The check was handed out to Suk Bahadur Tamang, a community leader from Rayale at the closing ceremony.
Also at the closing ceremony, the festival organisers announced to hold FSA Short Film Festival in October 2008.
As with past editions of the festival, a selection of up to 15 of the best films from FSA '07 will be part of Travelling Film South Asia. TFSA will travel all over Southasia and the rest of the world to build awareness and empathy among audiences across frontiers, create an understanding of the region and showcase the latest trend in documentary filmmaking in Southasia.
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