SAARC Film Festival enters phase three

By Kalakeerthi Edwin Ariyadasa

"Now, more than ever we need to talk to each other and understand how we see the world - and cinema is the best medium for doing this." - Martin Scorsese

"I think cinema, movies and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made films were magicians." - Francis Ford Coppola

For, quite some time now, we have been engrossed in prolonged talkathons, on the establishment of "a film culture." But, these extensive discussion - sessions do not seem to have yielded many tangible results.

In such a context of seeming lethargy, SAARC Cultural Centre, Colombo, has been sounding a stirring wake-up call, for a period spanning three years. This stimulating impetus, to ensure the progress of this vital discourse on 'Cinema Culture', has been provided by the SAARC Cultural Centre, through the series of SAARC film events, sponsored by that institution.

These events have taken the form of film festivals and monthly screenings of cinematic works, representing the eight countries that come within SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation).

Competitive format

Todate, SAARC Cultural Centre, has held three SAARC film festivals, showcasing the films province in SAARC countries. Located in Colombo, these festivals had been organised in a competitive format. Over and above these, once a month, a selected film from a SAARC country is exhibited. All these are offered free to the film aficionados of this country. Those who kept steady track of these cinematic events were able to acquire a vivid impression of the surprising variety of cultures that emanate from these SAARC lands.

The series of film presentations has enabled the emergence of a cultural empathy, among the nearly two billion people who inhabit the SAARC Domain.

Through official reports and various other sources we may have had the opportunity of obtaining profiles of our fellow SAARC kingdoms. But the SAARC cinematic creations provide intimate insights into the life and thoughts of the SAARC people, registering within us, a thrilling sense of discovery, which is, at times akin to a pleasant 'cultural shock'.

Sensation

In the slip-stream of that sensation, a cultural enlightenment dawns, bringing with it the salutary realisation, that cinematic works can open new vistas, revealing paths to reach the heart of other cultures.

The annual SAARC Film Festival held in Colombo has assumed a significant position in the cultural calendar of this country. Cinematic works created in the feature and documentary formats, are screened at the event.

The presence of film directors from SAARC countries and the workshop associated with the annual festival have imparted a special poignancy to the event. A trio of international (non-SAARC) adjudicators decides awards.

The third in the series of these annual SAARC Film Festivals, opened with an entry from Bangladesh. Titled Guerilla, the work is directed by reputed film director Nasiruddin Yusuf.

The film is a riveting reconstruction in cinematic form the blood - soaked birth of Bangladesh. It is an elegiac saga of the grievous price paid by Liberation Fighters to assert their right to Independence.

The theme of the associated workshop of the third SAARC Film Festival was "The institutional support for South Asian Cinema."

The central concern of the workshop was the urgent need to alert the relevant traditional support systems, to be mindful of the role these should play to enable the achievement of the full potentiality of the South Asian cinema.

As these SAARC film events continue to progress we could very well visualise the possibility of the establishment of an annual SAARC Film Festival of an international stature.

Felicitations

The SAARC Cultural Centre in Colombo, pre-eminently deserves the felicitations of all those persons in Sri Lanka, to whom art and culture matter, as central values of life. The services offered, entirely free by the SAARC Cultural Centre to facilitate the burgeoning of the awareness of a "film culture" in Sri Lanka, should be widely appreciated.

We have to be thankful, above all, for the effort they so assiduously make to introduce Sri Lankan, lovers of cinema, to such less-known regions of film making as Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.

Besides, these film events in Colombo, sponsored by the SAARC Cultural Centre, have almost imperceptibly elevated Sri Lanka to the stature of a significant centre of SAARC film culture.

This invariably deserves our whole-hearted gratitude.