ISLAMABAD, May 6: Six historical documentaries were screened at the South Asian travelling film festival 2006 here on Saturday. The festival organised by Nomad Art Gallery and Himal Association in collaboration with Mercy Corps will screen 15 documentaries and will conclude on Sunday (today).

Six documentaries titled Lanka: The other side of war and peace; Teardrops of Karnaphuli; Dirty laundry; A certain liberation; The life and time of a lady from Awadh-Hima; The great Indian school show and Final solution were screened.

All the documentaries are based on issues pertaining to human rights, peace and violence. The first documentary directed by Iffat Fatima spans the history of last three decades of violence in Sri Lanka juxtaposing the multiple realities of war and peace.

The “Teardrops of Karnaphuli, directed by Tanvir Mokammel, is based on a study of Chittagong hill tracks. The film explores the first disruption of peace in the area from 1959-1962 when a dam was constructed on the Karnaphuli river, submerging 54,000 acres and displacing 100,000 people in the process. The area remains one of the most impoverished and unstable in the country.

The participants took keen interest in the third documentary “Dirty laundry” directed by Sanjeev Chatterjee, which was a travel essay and historical journey offering a glimpse of the struggle for self-definition and cultural identity in today’s world, from the role of South African Indians.

This film is part of a series known as the politics of memory in the Indian diaspora.

The most interesting documentary was The life and time of a lady from Awadh-Hima directed by Shireen Pasha, which explores the extraordinary time in the history of the subcontinent.

It traces history, Hima’s life and her relationship with her renowned writer father.

The other two films were also related to peace and human rights violation in the subcontinent.—Lamia Zia