It was human rights issues of Asia, Africa and America that one got an inkling of, at the Tri Continental film festival that was held last week in the City. Organised by `Break through’, an international human rights organisation, the festival concerned itself with building a human rights culture.

The films that were picked from over 130 entries, not limiting themselves to telling stories, sought answers to issues concerning equality, justice, freedom and dignity.

If Mehrad Oskouei’s Iranian film ‘It’s always late for freedom’ traced the lives-hopes, frustrations, confusions and pains- and the lost childhood of teenage boys in a juvenile prison, Parvez Sharma directed ‘A Jihad for Love’ aimed at opening a dialogue that has been mostly non-existent in Islam’s recent history. This picture that presents the struggle for love, won the Jury Prize for Best Film. ‘Hip-Hop Revolution’ that explored the history, culture and impact of South African hip-hop was among the favourites. The film directed by Weeam Williams, pumped with the sound of unreleased classics and rare footage of BASE, the first hip-hop club in South Africa. ‘Hip Hop...’ also included interviews on how the art form mirrored African experiences and how it was a medium for the youth of the 80s to express themselves. ‘If Pirinop, My First Contact’ showed Brazil’s native Ikpeng Indians reenact their “first contact” with the white men, for the younger generation, who have no connection to the land that their elders yearn for, ‘Movement (R)evolution Africa’ saw artistes dance their stories for history and future. ‘Thousand Days and a Dream’, a Malayalam film documented the fight against the darker side of the Coca Cola bottling plant, that opened with great acclaim of creating jobs in rural Kerala; award-winning documentary ‘Independent Intervention’ which is on the US Media coverage of the war in Iraq and ‘From Dust’ that was filmed in Sri Lanka, and looked at the government’s response to a natural disaster were also among the movies screened.  ‘China Blue’ that was on the harsh world of sweatshop workers, ‘The Hands of Che Guevara’ and ‘With or Without Feel’ from Cuba were the new entrants.

This festival started by a group of Latin American film-makers, uses films to examine the links between social struggles and respect for human rights.“Introduced to India in 2004, the festival aims at documenting reality, helping one come to see and understand it and then changing it,” says Alika Khosla, associate director of the festival. But ask how many will really be influenced to make a change and she says that change and impact take place only over a long period of time. “Even if people come to see the films and go on to question the prejudices within them that is a good beginning,” she says.

Travelling Screen

Missed the festival, worry not for as part of the Travelling Screen initiative of the festival, these acclaimed movies will be taken to educational and cultural institutions, film societies and citizen’s group through out the country. In Karnataka, the Travelling Screen has been to Mysore and Mangalore among other cities. Plans are now on the anvil to take the Screen to government colleges, reveals Georgekutty of the Bangalore Film Society, which is associated with TRI Continental Festival. For more on the Travelling Screen, write to bangalorefilmsociety@gmail.com