KATHMANDU

'Bamboo Stories' made in Bangladesh about the dangers of bamboo trade, won the best documentary award at four-day documentary festival ‘Film Southasia 2019’ on Sunday.  

With the slogan ‘Where the mind is free', the 12th edition of Film Southasia began at Yalamaya Kendra, Patan on Thursday. Organized by Himal South Asia, the festival was attended by filmmakers from South Asia.

Directed by Shaheen Delhi-Riyaz, this documentary received a cash prize of USD 2,000 along with the Ram Bahadur Trophy.

The second position with a cash prize of USD 1,000 went to 'Scratches on stone' directed by Amit Mahanti (India). The documentary is based on tribal, armed war and changed lives of Nagaland.

Then, Italy's Simone Mastroni received a cash prize of USD 1,000 and Tarek Masoud Award for Debut Director. His documentary 'After Prayer' focused on the hope and hopelessness of Kashmiris in India.

Moreover, three documentaries — Suriyo Sen's 'Swimming Through the Darkness'; Jesse Alk's 'Pariha Dog'; and Hemant Kumar Gaba's 'An Engineered Dream'— received special mention at the festival.  

Meanwhile, the best documentary based on children’s topic ‘Kabul, City in the Wind’, directed by Aboozar Amini, Afghanistan bagged the UNICEF Award with USD 1,000. Then, Nepal’s Aashish Limbu and Debin Rai's 'The Winter Tap' along with Eshwarya Grover's 'Memories of Saira and Salim' from India won the best documentary produced by the students and received USD 500 each.

A total of 62 documentaries were showcased in the biennial festival. The selected documentaries for the festival competed for five different awards where the judging panel comprised of Nepali Journalist Kunda Dixit, Director Sumathi Shivamohan from Sri Lankan and Indian artist Ayesha Abraham.