<font style="line-height:150%"><u>SAFMA Documentary Festival</u></font><br/>Make Film Not War

KATHMANDU, Dec 27: Lighting ‘candles’ with representatives from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives and Pakistan, Minister for Information and Communication Krishna Bahadur Mahara inaugurated the first South Asian Interactive Documentary Festival this evening in the Yak & Yeti Hotel, Kathmandu. [break]



The event organized by South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) is showcasing 24 documentaries from all eight member countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and will focus on conflict, peace, people and culture.



Stressing the need of South Asian unity, Mahara said, “Nepal is proud to host this festival and I hope these documentaries will help bring South Asians closer.” Also addressing the audience, Editor-in-chief of dainikee.com Narayan Wagle said, “In recent times, documentaries are evolving as a mode for creative expression and is no longer just a propagandist’s tool." He further stressed the need for greater press freedom throughout the region and talked about the intolerance of the prevalent regimes in South Asia.



Informing about the festival, Coordinator of the festival, Sara Tareen said, “Documentaries have a critical role to play in addressing inter and intra-state conflict and they help in the process of peace and reconciliation.”






“The realization of documentary as a medium to inform has brought about this festival. They reflect our society and bring us closer as we relate to the problems and culture that spans our borders. We have a rich tradition of cinema in the subcontinent but documentaries are getting sidelined by commercial films,” said Secretary General, SAFMA, Imtiaz Alam who further spoke on the role of media vis-à-vis the critical situation of India-Pakistan relations post-Mumbai terror attacks.



“Nepal has been exemplary for Pakistan, Maldives and Bangladesh for throwing out autocratic regimes but the Emergency Days-like situation is repeating in Nepal. Media freedom should be ensured and the government and the constitution should guarantee press freedom,” Alam further added while stressing regional consensus as the only option for development in South Asia.






Speaking at the program, senior filmmaker from India, Bikram Singh said, “War is against the people of both sides. Those who support war are against the people. South Asia currently has a lot of issues up its sleeves. There’s a lot of regional politics and displacement of people in a large scale which calls upon a new mode of political foresight rather than the old concept of nationalism and the media should create its own code of conduct before the status rams one down our neck.”



The festival kicked off with Indian filmmaker Anand Patwardhan’s War and Peace, a documentary that follows the India´s nuclear test.