Greek film director Annetta Papathanasiou was in for a shock when she went to teach theatre in Afghanistan. In her 80-minute documentary 'Playing With Fire', she talks of how women aspiring for a career in acting have been murdered, gone missing and even threatened by the Taliban. The film was just one of many screened at the Sama-Bhav film festival on February 4, held at Patkar Hall in Marine Lines to create a dialogue on gender, masculinity and relationships.
Greek film director Annetta Papathanasiou was in for a shock when she went to teach theatre in Afghanistan. In her 80-minute documentary 'Playing With Fire', she talks of how women aspiring for a career in acting have been murdered, gone missing and even threatened by the Taliban. The film was just one of many screened at the Sama-Bhav film festival on February 4, held at Patkar Hall in Marine Lines to create a dialogue on gender, masculinity and relationships.
In a first, the SNDT College of Arts and SCB College of Commerce and Science for Women collaborated with MAVA (Men Against Violence and Abuse) to host such a festival for two days. The first day itself saw a packed auditorium and an interaction with film-makers Kalpana Sharma and Aruna Raje Patil and advocate Jai Vaidya, who spoke on sexual harassment of women at workplace.
Among other shorts, documentaries and films screened was Out! Loud!, directed by Betty Bernhard from California, where segments of the play 'To-Ti-Te' (He, She, They) were captured. It spoke of LGBT existence and real-life narratives of queer people. Kanchan Bhalerao, 21, who watched the documentary, came out a changed person. "The film festival was an eye-opener. I did not know what LGBT meant till today. I thought if a girl is a lesbian then why should I socialise or be around her. With the film, I understood that they are people just like us and sexuality does not make their complete identity," she said.
Harish Sadani, co-founder of MAVA, was present to guide everyone through the multilingual film festival. "Through this festival we are talking about all three genders and addressing the common enemy of patriarchy. We are trying to break gender stereotypes and trying to say that the attitude of men is a problem, not the men, and we should create an interaction regarding that. We are here to empower, mentor and sensitise too. In the recent LGBT pride march, women's groups and men's groups should also join in and so should the LGBT community join our struggles," he said while adding that merely watching films was not enough. Sadani has been organising this festival at various institutes for the past two years and wishes to take it to other cities.
Dr Putul Sathe from the department of English, SNDT College of Arts, said that Sama-Bhav festival was to move towards the concept of equal understanding, alternate dialogues and to address the need to move beyond our closeted understanding of gender roles. "We need to create self reflective spaces where we work and negotiate with gender. Gender has become a cultural position now and we need to move beyond the binary definitions of man and woman," she said.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}