International Film Festival comes to India

The battle between science and nature has been as old as the formation of the universe and the living beings. History is evident that whenever over-ambitious mortals transcended their limit and turned avarice in terms of power, authority and moolah they have always been awarded with heavy reprimand and mass destruction not only for the present genesis but also for the unborn generations. In spite of past lessons human beings have always and continue to challenge the nature and follow their own greed. The recent Chernobyl fire, Fukushima disaster and the ill effects of uranium mining all over the globe proves the above maxim. The people staying nearby comes in direct contact with the particles through polluted water, air and soil ensuing getting affected with harmful health issues like breathing problem, lungs’ malfunctioning to deadly diseases like cancer. In Navajo Nations multitude of bread earners of the family lost their lives during the mining boom period of 60s-80s as they used to hold the uranium ore with their bare hands and work there sans any protective kit. 

In an effort to make the masses aware of this growing menace an international film festival titled “International Travelling Uranium Film Festival” is being organized across eight cities of India starting from New Delhi’s Siri Fort Auditorium from 4^th January, 2013. The organizers of the festival include Mr. Norbert- Director of Rio film festival held last year and Mr. Shri Prakash, National Award Winner documentary film-maker hailing from humble surroundings of Jharkhand. It will be a three day festival in each of the cities excluding Shillong, where it will be of two days. After Delhi, the festival will travel to Shillong, Ranchi, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Thrissur (Kerala) chronologically. In Shillong, the festival will be held on 10^th and 11^th January after which it will straightaway move to Shri Prakash’s home town Ranchi. Here, the festival will be on the floors from 15^th to 17^th January. The inaugurating day will be organized in the serene campus of Central University of Jharkhand. After this it will move to RIIMS and conclude at ILCC. The festival will include screening of some of the world’s best movies on the subject followed by interactive sessions and panel discussions.

Whether the festival would be a success and whether it will garner the response as expected by the people is a thing to watch. But it is certainly a welcome step by the duo towards making the masses more vigil and cognizant pertaining to the growing menace of over-exploitation of nature and exhorting them to act accordingly. Also, the festival is expected to prove much beneficial for the budding film –makers as they will be exposed to the art of film making and best usage of cinematic language in a motion picture.