The FSA-2013 organizing committee was forced to cancel public screenings of Broken, The Story of One and No Fire Zone, which deal with the issues of post-conflict transition of Sri Lanka, following a directive from the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC). [break]
While Broken was scheduled to be screened in QFX Kumari, Kamalpokhari on Thursday, The Story of One and No Fire Zone were slated for Friday and Saturday respectively.
FSA-2013 director Nayan Tara Gurung Kakshapati said the MoIC, in its letter, has not explained why public screenings of documentaries by Sri Lankan film makers have been banned.
MoIC secretary Dhruba Prasad Sharma told Republica that the directive was issued in line with a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). “We just forwarded the MoFA´s letter to the festival organizer,” said Sharma, without revealing why Sri Lankan documentaries needed to be banned. Although the MoIC has not explained the rationale behind the banning, it is believed that the MoFA took such an action as per a request made by the Kathmandu-based Sri Lankan embassy.
Kakshapati said Sri Lankan documentaries, despite being banned, will still be parts of the FSA-2013. “We will not screen them publicly,” said Kakshapati. “But, they will now be screened privately. And the jury members will also watch and consider them for prizes.”
The FSA-2013 organizing committee has also decided to hold a panel discussion on freedom of expression on this Saturday -- the day No Fire Zone was originally scheduled to be screened. Noted journalists Kunda Dixit, Narayan Wagle and veteran photographer Shahidul Alam, who is also a jury member, will participate in the discussion.
This is the second time that documentaries selected for FSA, which began in 1997 in Kathmandu against the backdrop of new political system that Nepal embraced following the Jana Aandolan-1990, have been banned. Earlier, a Bangladeshi documentary was not allowed to be screened as part of the FSA.
Journalist Kanak Mani Dixit, the chair of the FSA-2013, vehemently criticized the banning of public screenings of Sri Lankan movies. “We reject the notion that the regime of a country can dictate the people of another country on what they can and should be watching,” said Dixit. “I think the audience of Kathmandu is mature enough to judge by themselves.”
The banning has been criticized in Sri Lanka as well. Noted Sri Lankan journalist Nalaka Gunawardene tweeted “babus (bureaucrats of Nepal and Sri Lanka) cannot decide what films we must see and how!”
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