JOIN USThe Way We Live’, a festival of international films on the differently-abled, was held at the Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan recently.
Curated by German theatre director Gregor Kern and stage and screen-actor Mohan Agashe, the festival showcased different films like ‘White Sound’, ‘Desperados -Episode 2’, ‘Phoenix Dance’ and more.
There was also a question-and-answer session for almost 15 minutes after each section of the festival. The curators and the crowd discussed the different issues that were explored in the films and the festival saw a good response.
The question-and-answer session gave rise to interesting questions and the curators were excited about the interaction with the audience. Gregor, who is the artistic director of the ‘International Short Film Festival’ since years, said that it was a pleasure to bring the festival back to India.
“I didn’t come with expectations; I just came with a lot of hope. The event always works when the impact of it is bigger and I think the films presented did make such an impact,” said Gregor.
Mohan said that in most media, talking about disabilities can get either too boring or too academic. “But through this festival, we brought together the lives of many differently-abled people. It’s not difficult to feel disability,” he said. Mohan added that everyone wants to live life with dignity and the festival aimed at communicating the same.
“We tried to screen films which were from the disabled’s perspective,” he said. The audience was touched by the films that were screened at the festival and hoped that the festival would come back to the City soon.
Arunita, a psychologist, said that she could relate to the films professionally and personally. “The festival was a perfect combination of cognitive learning and sensory learning. And the interactive bit after the screening made the festival interesting,” she said.
Sarika Madhushree, a documentary film-maker, said that it’s interesting to see the different aspects of disability. “For them, their world is normal and we are the ‘special people’. It’s challenging and intriguing to see films which showcase the disabled’s story with day-to-day activities and them normally going about in life,” she said.
Sarika added, “Having personal experiences always help in understanding the plight better, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t take much to understand that the differently-abled want you to treat them like any other individual.”