Jury Members: Saeed Mirza (Chair), Farjad Nabi, Kedar Sharma
It has been said so many times that no one believes it now, but never has it been more true, that the jury of FSA 07 had a very difficult task in selecting the films for the final awards. Let it be said that it is the most unenviable task for any filmmaker to end up in for we saw something special in each film we had the pleasure of viewing and often found ourselves wishing for more categories in order to recognise the wonderful films we had shortlisted.
Many questions, some general to documentary filmmaking, some particular to the South Asian context came up again and again; funded films versus independent efforts, diaspora outlook versus local insight, broad based issues versus brave choices of subject matter; all these and more were discussed in great detail.
The vast sweep of subjects and the variety in approaches to the documentary made our job all the more difficult. It is to the credit of FSA that they bring together such a diverse collection of films on one platform and it was very heartening to see the Kathmandu audience respond so enthusiastically to this great effort by the FSA team.
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