Documenting issues

The problems of extremism and intolerance have become so acute that to some the only effective manner appears to be to address it directly. Any other approach may seem too tame and not making the right impact.

The formal aspect too should be just as effective and front on. It is probably a more desirable option to exercise if the format happens to be that of film documentary.

Interactive Resource Centre has been active now for decades in offering a platform for the creative artistes of the country to come forth and express themselves in various forms. These various art forms like theatre, film music and poetry have been seen as convenient mediums for the dissemination of ideas. Film festivals too have been one part of their activities, and since the one held last week was the eighth, it reflected the consistency of effort.

The festival was held in three parts -- the first of documentaries by Pakistani students, the second, the best South Asian documentaries and the third films from various countries like Afghanistan, Burma, Singapore, India, Italy and Bangladesh.

Interactive Resource Centre has also been looking for partners who think on the same lines and want a pur aman (peaceful) Pakistan, free of hatred, intolerance and exclusivity. The festival offered a variety of claims at achieving an alternative narrative to counter extremism by showcasing films on tolerance and cultural heritage. By promoting a peaceful image of the country, it touched serious issues, offering resolutions in terms of greater awareness on issues like sexual harassment, minority rights, sectarian harmony, and cultural identity and disability rights.

Called 8th Vasakh Documentary Film Festival, the two day affair was meant to create awareness about such issues which have been devilled this society. Twenty-four documentary films were shown to an audience appreciative of the effort. Though the number of films from outside Pakistan was also good, it is prudent to mention some of the films that were made and shown by Pakistani directors. In most of the films it appears that the Interactive Resource Centre had a role to play because it provided the human input in terms of its core team that consisted of Risham Waseem and Noorul ain Zaib. Chanan Peer directed by Hafeez Shahid, Shahid Islam assisted by the IRC team and made by Bahawalpur University was on the festival held in the middle of the Cholistan desert where people from all faiths congregate to participate in the song and dance affair while offering their thanks to the saint and pleading for greater benediction. The salient feature is that all people from multiple religious denominations gather mix, and offer prayers with equal sincerity and devotion.

Mur Mur Key Na Dekh, directed by Risham Waseem, dealt with the theme of sexual harassment and was quite graphic. It exposed the problems that women faced in a society like Pakistan which otherwise is very sanctimonious and self righteous. Ask a woman and in almost all cases the answer would be the difficulty they face while venturing out on their own to work independently. Courageous Women by directed by Sana Hussain and Rabia Afzal was about working women more in line with the traditional concepts of labour like working the looms and weaving cloth. The high level of exploitation did not leave much for the family.

There was a film on the inevitable damage caused by cigarettes. Tobacco Causes Cancer showed people’s addiction despite the danger, helping them on course to slow-paced suicide. The causes for this addiction could be many, not all spelt out but poverty and lack of security added to the anxiety that forces a reliance on nicotine.

Zahida made by Bahauddin Zikriya University, directed by Munazza Kareem and Sidra Kareem, was about the absorption of the disabled people in society. As it is, society is indifferent or reluctant to consider them as full members of society, the film focused on the heroic effort of the disadvantaged who called real disability as being the lack of education. These disabled people with education and acquisition of skills easily become gainful members of society and then without being even conscious of their disability.

The Interactive Resource Centre formed in December 2000 is an initiative to explore new avenues for community mobilisation and dialogue in order to assist people in their struggle to regain their collective power and strength. The prime aim of Interactive Resource Centre in the past had been to employ Interactive Theatre for development and human rights struggle of marginalised communities in Pakistan. Now it has added another feather of documentary films with the same objective in view.