A two-day Travelling International Film Festival started at the University of Kashmir on Tuesday, with special focus on key themes including gender, equity, diversity and inclusion.
The festival titled ‘Samabhav’ has been organised by Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMRC) in collaboration with Men against Violence & Abuse (MAVA), with active partnership from KU’s Centre for Women’s Studies and Research, Media Education and Research Centre and Department of Social Work.
Vice-Chancellor Prof Nilofer Khan inaugurated the film festival as chief guest and hoped that it would be a great experience for young students to learn about film-making and the need to highlight social issues through the medium of films.
She said youth can act as enablers of a positive change in the society by raising awareness on issues like gender inequality using films as medium to convey their message.
The VC also congratulated EMRC, MAVA and other associating partners for organising the important film festival.
Dean, School of Social Sciences, Prof Irshad A Nawhoo, a guest of honour at the inaugural session, highlighted various initiatives taken by the University of Kashmir to hassle-free academic progression of women students and research scholars.
Mr Harish Sadani, Co-Founder and Executive Director, MAVA, said the 5th edition of Travelling International Film Festival is a completely student-centric programme, where students will be analysing, reviewing, debating and discussing the short-films, documentaries and feature films soon after their screening during the festival. “It is an interactive festival, where lights, camera and inter(action) is the focal area,” he said.
Director EMRC Dr Salima Jan earlier welcomed the dignitaries, guests and student participants, and also spelt out the broad objectives of the film festival. She said nearly 200 students from University of Kashmir, its affiliated colleges, Central University of Kashmir, Islamic University of Science and Technology and North Campus KU will be participating in the two-day event, where 12 films will be screened and reviewed.
On directions of the VC, the students from KU’s MERC, Department of Social Work, North Campus, Centre for Women’s Studies and Research, besides members of Internal Complaints Committee were particularly chosen to participate in the event in view of the high importance of the theme.
Dr Roshan Ara, Coordinator CWSR delivered the vote of thanks, while Dr Tariq Abdullah from EMRC conducted proceedings of the inaugural session.