By Syed Zafar Mehdi
The second edition of Herat International Women’s Film Festival to be held in March 20014 seeks to provide platform to young filmmakers and change societal attitude towards women in Afghanistan
The preparations for the second International Women’s Film Festival – Herat, to be held in March 2014 in Herat, are in full swing. The organizers, Armanshahr Foundation and Roya Film House, are expecting a bigger response from women filmmakers this year, after a successful inaugural edition of the festival in March last year. The festival coincides with the International Women’s Day on March 08.
According to the organizers, the festival endeavors to examine the situation of women and offer critiques and solutions. “Women in Afghanistan face countless problems on multiple fronts, and cinema, as a powerful medium, can exert great influence on the minds of people and facilitate change,” says Guissou Jahangiri, Executive Director, Armanshahr Foundation, one of the main organizers with Roya Film House.
Armshahr Foundation/Open Asia is an independent organization founded in Tajikistan in 1996 and now based in Kabul since 2006. The organization works in the area of democracy, human rights, rule of law. Roya Film House is an Afghan film production company, founded by filmmaker Roya Sadat.
The aim of the festival, according to organizers, is to underline the importance of women in the area of film making, encourage young women filmmakers in Afghanistan and engage them with filmmakers in other countries. The organizers chose Herat as the venue for two important but contrasting reasons. It is a cradle of beautiful Afghan culture and in recent years it has earned the dubious reputation as the most unsafe city for women.
“The alarming increase in the cases of crime against women in Herat prompted us to make it our venue. Through these films, we intend to change the societal attitude towards women,” says Ms. Jahangiri.
The organizing body of the week-long festival has invited all the budding and established filmmakers from across the world to take part in the country’s biggest film festival.
“The Secretariat of the 2nd International Women’s Film Festival – Herat calls on new or established filmmakers from anywhere in the world to participate . There are no restrictions on length or genre. To qualify, productions must feature an aspect of women’s lives and the issues they confront,” says the statement from organizers.
The deadline for submission of films is January 25 2014. A jury comprising local and international filmmakers and critics shall judge the films.
The first edition of the festival in March 2013 attracted more than 100 films from leading filmmakers from 20 countries. More than 2,000 people watched the films in the three-day carnival in Herat. The filmmakers also held workshops for cinema and TV professionals.
