Report on FSA '99

Film South Asia ‘99, the second biennial festival of South Asian documentaries, was successfully organised by Himal Association and Himal South Asian magazine in Kathmandu from 30 September to 3 October 1999. The festival was supported by UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia, Television Trust for Environment headquartered in London, and Eco Himal (Austrian Development Cooperation).

The festival brought together the best of non-fiction films made on South Asian subjects in the last two years. FSA ‘99 was a success for the thematic variety and the geographical range of the 52 films screened as well as for the participation by the local audience and the large gathering of the filmmakers of the region. 

The joint opening of the festival by Nepal’s Minister of Youth Sports and Culture, who was in charge of the South Asian Federation Games that was taking place in Kathmandu then, and the noted Indian poet and filmmaker Gulzar added to the stature of the festival. The vibrant yet informal atmosphere of the festival was an opportunity for the filmmakers and the audience to hold discussions on various social issues facing the subcontinent as well as the technical aspects of filmmaking.

All the screenings were followed by discussions in the screening halls and also informally at the venue’s spacious foyer. The majority of these discussions were led by the filmmakers present. These discussions identified areas of social concern among the filmmakers and the audience and the role non-fiction films can play in he tackling the social issues faced by the people of the region. They also focussed on the craft of filmmaking in South Asia.

More than 40 delegates from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom and the US participated in the festival.  Except for the three jury members and the chief guest, all of them travelled to Kathmandu at their own expense. This wonderful response proves the amount of interest in non-fiction films there is in the region and the high esteem filmmakers and journalists have for Film South Asia.  

FSA ‘99 brought together 52 films on the South Asia which dealt with issues as diverse as life of a girl-child magician in Bombay to the effects of uranium mining in the highlands of Bihar to the profile of a street theatre group from Karachi which performs plays on women’s issues to a case of death in ‘safe custody’  of a how eighteen-year-old girl in Bangladesh. Other unique subjects included Punjabi brides ‘exported’ to the west, an unbiased view of the tension between India and Pakistan, the Indian diaspora to the Trinidad in the West Indies and a ‘fictionalised’ animation account of the problems faced by the South Asian girl-child. Of the films that were screened at FSA ‘99 more than half of them dealt with women’s, children’s and environmental issues.  Other themes included ethnography, politics and history, social commentary,  reportage and profiles. Country-wise 33 films were from India, five from Bangladesh, five from Nepal, four from Pakistan and one from Sri Lanka. For three and a half days, these films were screened back-to-back in two halls of the centrally located Russain Cultural Centre, from mid-morning through late evening.

A total of 149 entries were received for the festival. The primary criteria for entry and selection of films for FSA ‘99 was subject: they could be made by anyone (including non-South Asians), but had to be about South Asia or South Asians. The selection panel looked for overall excellence, but also considered regional balance and thematic variety while choosing films for the festival.

Of the 52 films screened at FSA ‘99, 45 were in competition, all of them made after 1997. A three member jury headed by the Calcutta-based internationally acclaimed auteur Goutam Ghose awarded the Best Film Prize jointly to No One Believes the Professor made by Lahore’s Farjad Nabi and Thin Air made by Bombay-based Ashim Ahluwalia. They won a plaque each and shared the US$ 2000 cash award for the top film. Two entries shared the Second Best Film Prize: Pure Chutney by the Florida-based Sanjeev Chatterjee, Three Women and a Camera by Sabeena Gadihoke of Delhi. They shared the prize of US$ 1000. The Third Best Film Prize and US$ 500 went to Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda by Ranchi-based  Sriprakash.  Delhi’s Kabir Khan’s film The Forgotten Army won Grand Jury Prize and Do Flowers Fly made by Prosenjith Ganguly of Calcutta won the Special Jury Mention. Other members of the Jury were Salman Sahid from Lahore and Neloufer de Mel from Colombo.     

Together with the entries received for Film South Asia ‘97 we now have an archive of South Asian documentaries containing some 300 non-fiction films made after 1994. Almost all these films are of pressing concerns in present day South Asia. Films from the archives are being borrowed from all over the region. This is in addition to the Travelling Film South Asia in which 15 select films from FSA ‘99 are being taken all over the world to popularise South Asian filmmaking and build a constituency for films on the region. Travelling Film South Asia ‘97 went to more than 30 destinations all over South Asia and the world. We are confident  that TFSA will go to even more venues this time.