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Report by Ashok Palit, Bhubaneswar: Aaina with the philosophy of inclusion in mind joined hands with Brotherhood to organize the We Care Film Festival for the second time in Bhubaneswar. The ‘We Care Film Fest’ is a travelling festival with the aim of raising awareness about disability issues through the medium of film.
One of the main objectives of the festival was to showcase the abilities of differently abled children and people who lead their life just like any other person and reach levels of success. A special feature of the event was a short documentary film competition in the area of disability to encourage community engagement and 21 entries of brilliant and heart touching were received from Odisha.
Aaina, an organisation working on issues of disability, in collaboration with NGO Brotherhood Foundation. Inaugurating the festival, filmmaker Gautam Ghose said, "We have to help break barriers for people with disability and create awareness among the general public to be positive and compassionate towards them.
Children must learn these values from childhood noted writer and former vice-chancellor of Ravenshaw University Debdas Chhotray said, "Disability is not only a medical problem but it is more a problem of attitude. It is not all about constructing ramps in buildings but changing the mindset is very important. Though a large number of mainstream films are made on disability like 'Barfi', 'My name is Khan', etc., but they are keeping away from the real issue."
Ortel CEO Jagi Mangat Panda also applauded the initiative. Brotherhood Foundation Director Satish Kapoor informed that the awarded films from the festival would be nominated to the international We Care fest. “It is an educational travelling film fest proposing to travel with a motto to generate awareness among the youth,” he said. From next year, this fest would travel across the world, he added. State Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities Kasturi Mohapatra along with TCS CSR manager Priya Mohapatra, IMC, Dhenkanal Director Mrinal Chatterjee and Odia cine star Akash DasNayak were present on the occasion There are 21 such documentaries developed by enthusiasts from Odisha to be screened.
The winners will receive cash awards and citations and have the opportunity to compete at the national festival. The script writing competition for schoolchildren on “Inclusion and inclusive education” is another popular feature of the Odisha edition. The winning script may be developed into a documentary film by one of the filmmakers.
It is to be noted that the United Nations has decided to declare 2013 to 2022 as the Decade of Disability. In this context, initiatives like We Care voicing various disability issues have become more relevant.
The festival got an encouraging response with a large number of students from different schools and colleges present on the inaugural day to watch films.
Apart from short films of one to five minute duration, amateur films on digital camera or mobile phones are also being showcased. The event also features discussions and deliberations on various disability related issues. The final result for the film competition is: 1 minute1st - "Step" - Basant Patnaik & Abhisek Brahma2nd - "A silent noise" - Snehashis Das, 3 minutes1st - "I am enough" - Subhransu Nayak MDC,2nd - "Different but Equal - Sadanand Beltharia & Soubhagya Kumar Mohanty ,Special mention - "The Door" - Ranjit Mohanty,5 minutes1st - "THe Attitude" - Santosh Kumar Panda, 2nd - "One Feet" - Subhaprada & Sumit Kumar Nayak, 3rd - "Why" - Nibedita Das, Rainbow Production, Special mention -Super Girl - Ranjit Mohanty ,Turn The Page - Mahipal Singh.
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