Gearing up for ‘Film Southasia 2019’

With the slogan ‘Where the mind is free', the 12th edition of Film Southasia is all set to begin at Yalamaya Kendra, Patan from Thursday. Organized by Himal South Asia, the festival will be attended by filmmakers from South Asia.

The festival, which is held every two years since 1996, will run for four days. It will screen 63 documentary films made in South Asia produced within the past two years, focusing on contemporary issues. In addition, the festival will also feature a panel discussion session of filmmakers.

According to the organizer, the festival received more than 25 hundred documentaries from countries including Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Myanmar for selection.

The selected documentaries for the festival will compete for five different awards. The best documentary will receive the Ram Bahadur Trophy with a cash prize of USD 2,000. Likewise, the runner-up will receive a cash prize of USD 1,000, while the best debut director will win Tarek Masoud Award along with a cash prize of USD 1,000.  And the best documentary based on children’s topic will bag the UNICEF Award with USD 1,000, and the best documentary produced by the students will receive USD 500.

Along with Nepali Journalist Kunda Dixit, the judging panel comprising Director Sumathi Shivamohan from Sri Lankan and Indian artist Ayesha Abraham will select the best documentaries for the awards.

Meanwhile, Amrit Gurung, the frontman of Nepali band Nepathya, will perform in the inauguration ceremony of the festival.  Then, the documentary 'Indus Blues' will open the festival. The documentary is based on the folk music of Pakistan by filmmaker Javed Sarif.

The festival is screening documentaries such as 'Sharmila Tagore', 'Tapped in Qatar', 'Kabul’, ‘City in the Wind', 'Bembu Stories', 'After Sabin', 'Abu', 'Saroj Dutt and His Times', ‘Swimming Through the Darkness’, ‘We’re with Dr KC’ among others.

 The festival will run till November 17.