Film festival on disability to kickstart on Feb 9 in Mumbai

The We Care Filmfest 2011 on Disability Issues was launched from the YB Chavan Centre on Monday. A ‘travelling film festival’, it will start in Mumbai on February 9 and move on to other parts of India, including the north-east.

Although the launch event didn’t see the expected turnout, Satish Kapoor, director, is optimistic about the festival’s reach in the coming weeks. “Inclusion is not possible without spreading awareness and the film medium is the best possible way to do that,” he says.

According to Kapoor, psychological acceptance of disability among the abled is a prerequisite to physical acceptance. With this aim, the festival mainly targets higher education institutions, especially mass communication and journalism colleges.

“These are students who have the power of media in their hands. We hope these films will teach them how to portray disability issues in a sensitive manner.” 

A need to address the dearth of Indian films that sensitively portray disability has been felt since the festival’s inception in 2003. Even this year, a considerable number of films has come from the US, Canada, Israel, Indonesia, Spain, Italy and Brazil.

To address this, the festival has been made competitive with submissions invited for different categories.

The impact of the festival has been slow but steady. “Over the past three years, we’ve seen a marked improvement in the quality of films,” says Kapoor.

This year, 67 films in four categories, ranging from one minute up to 75 minutes, will be screened. Among them will be two films on leprosy. There will also be films from the north-east, highlighting the inclusive nature of north-eastern communities regarding people with disabilities.

Other disability-related issues such as sexuality however, are yet to find an Indian voice. “We had one submission on sexuality but the filming was not up to the mark and the language was far too crass so it had to be left out,” said Yogesh Desai, preview committee member, and CEO, Helen Keller Institute for Deaf and Deafblind.

“Even after eight years of approaching corporate India and government agencies, we still don’t have a confirmed sponsor for the festival,” revealed Rajiv Chandran, national information officer, United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan, one of the founding partners of the festival.

Kapoor is hoping to compile 60 award-winning films collected over the 8 editions of the festival and screen them on a wider scale. He is looking for partners in Mumbai.