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Around 900 short films and documentaries from more than 70 Asian countries were showcased
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Pakistan’s first ever edition of the Asia Peace Film Festival concluded amidst tears and joys with the promise of peace and harmony at Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) Islamabad.
The winners of the festival were overwhelmed by the announcement from the juries while some international delegates carried away by their emotions as they delivered their final speeches at the closing ceremony.
In the category of short films of Asia Peace Film Festival, ‘Marry Mother’ from Afghanistan, ‘Water’ from Afghanistan and Saad’s Olive Tree from Iraq have declared the best films.
The Chinese documentary ‘Long Yearning’ emerged as best of all nominees.
In the category of animation film, Japanese movie ‘My story of motorbike’ declared best. While ‘The Edge’ from Russia, ‘The Tree and Impulse’ from South Korea and ‘The Box’ from Turkey also were best animations.
In the category of best micromentary films, Iranian film `In the Mediterranean Arm’ won the category from other nominations include Turkey’s ‘Playing House’, ‘Cube’ and ‘Hanging’ from Iran, ‘Chirapajas’ from Russia and ‘Golden Egg’ from Singapore.
Every winner was also granted with a cash prize of US$2000 while a film fund was also established to provide US$10,000 to support those filmmakers who could not execute their ideas due to lack of funds.
The Asia Peace Film Festival is dedicated to creating a communicational forum of visual, artistic, aesthetic and cultural inter-subjectivity of Asian societies. The festival engages filmmakers, artists, performers, academics and members of creative community to unravel the delicacies of diversities.
The filmmakers from various Asian countries visited Pakistan to attend the festival, where 900 short films and documentaries from more than 70 Asian countries were showcased at Pakistan National Council of Arts Islamabad.
Over a dozen distinguish artist and filmmakers including Komeil Soheili, Kim Jooyoung, Nikkin Loke Sau Mui, Liguer Tu, Min Min Hein, Hassnain Imran Hani, Boopathy Wickramage, Merve Cirisoglu Cotur, Fatemeh Hassanzadeh, Kamboziya Partovi, Nasrin Moradi, Hamid Reza Soheili, Mariya Saeed, Sahraa Karimi, Syed Jala Rohani, Anne Hellen Geroe Demy and Amir Masoud Soheili spoke of their aspirations for the peace and acceptance of differences to live together in a harmonised manner.
Most of the participants on the occasion agreed that all the Asian countries have the similar problems. The cinema can bring the Asian societies closer and together to fight the challenges being faced by the most populace continent.
Amjad Bhatti, chief executive of the festival, said that he wanted to bring filmmakers from across Asia together at one platform from where they can work on the promotion of peace. He added that they have organized the festival to promote peace with the neighboring countries and other Asian countries through cultural exchanges.
Director of the United Nations Information Center Vittorio Cammarota also attended the concluding ceremony and lauded the efforts made by the organizers to arrange such a good show with limited resources.
The Chief Guest Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera, Federal Secretary for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage spoke on the occasion said that prosperity comes from peace and we need to focus on developing peace initiatives across Asia to harness social harmony and economic growth.
He added that the success of the festival showed that Pakistan could lead large scale initiatives and also could host international delegates without any doubts and fears.
The PNCA Director General Syed Jamal Shah said Cinema, both narrative and documentary, is probably the most accessible and effective vehicle for promoting social change in the world because it can address important social and cultural issues while at the same time entertaining people.
Sahra Karimi, one of the filmmakers from Afghanistan, said politics have its own drawbacks and it does not does not show the real face of the society. Art has the capacity to reflect the problems and educate the people about the solutions we need for our societies. The documentary makers shall be the social activists so that they could sow the seeds of change through their films.
The Malaysian filmmaker Abdul Wahab said the APFF is the very important moment in the Asian timeline, and it would define a new narrative in the context of Pakistan and peace. He suggestive to have more films and respective literature to create better understanding of the challenges we are facing.
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