Ruhi Hamid & Misha Maltsev

The VIBGYOR film festival is one of the most special festivals we have attended. It is not just a film festival but a place where filmmakers, artists, musicians and activists can meet and exchange ideas on issues that matter. The strength of it lies in the fact that it has an alternative atmosphere steeped within the grassroots of communities; it has an organic feel that allows for anything to happen. Today, it was very moving to see and hear the group of demonstrators from NGIL who came into the auditorium to highlight their fight against the foreign corporation that is polluting their river and the environment. They were respectful and were treated with dignity by the festival organizers and this is the essence of this festival that sets it apart from others.

Ruhi Hamid speaks at ViBGYOR

Mini Conference: AFSPA and other repressive laws of state

Reported by Aryakrishnan Ramakrishnan

2.00 pm at Venue VIOLET
Moderator : Zakia Soman

Babloo Loitongbam (Activist) : AFSPA and the Boarder States

Babloo started his presentation talking of human rights alert, where he works with and where Irom Sharmila used to work before she got under house arrest. He talked of the situation where Sharmila continues her struggle with hope amidst the cold response of Indian state. He elaborated the history of AFSPA, a law introduced by the British in 1942 against the freedom fighters in India. AFSPA grew to a tool of oppression of Indian state to it's own people. It is used against the North Eastern states. Jammu and Kashmir has a similar provision called armed forces Jammu &Kashmir act. AFSPA literally justified the killings and rape of women and children making no civil protests possible in these areas. He talked of the every day stories of disappearing people who were taken by the army and returning of some dead or disfigured.

It was in the 1970s post emergency student groups started to take up the grave human rights violations and injustices caused by AFSPA. The first PIL was admitted in the Delhi Supreme court in 1980. It was led by students. The Supreme court kept silent on this. With UN intervention in 1997, supreme court came up with a judgment on AFSPA, but a negative one interpreting AFSPA as constitutional.

People of kathikudam, a vilage located in Chalakudi river basin, thrissur district of Kerala came to Vibgyor after a protest march to the district collectorate. They shared about the struggle in the village against the water contamination and pollution caused by Nitta Gelatin India Ltd (NGIL), a japanese company. The company is using 6290200 litres of water per day from Chalakudi river and pumping the waste in to the river and surrounding areas. The struggle has been on for 30 years, but could not sustain because of the pressure of the company and the authorities. The vilage people are facing huge health impacts on their lives. During the past 10 years more than 60 people have died of cancer. Asthma, Bronchitis and skin diseases are spreading in the area.

Other pics are uploaded here

ViBGYOR, being a socially conscious platform for expression of art, values freedom. True to its spirit, Free Software is used whenever and wherever it can be used. The media centre at the main venue is setup using Ubuntu GNU/Linux, with VLC for playing the movies and AUdacity for audio recording. The online media desk is powered exclusively by GNU/Linux. People use OOO Writer to compose their reports, press releases etc. ViBGYOR2010 website itself runs on Drupal, and microblogging is done using identi.ca ( powered by the excellent Status.net project ).

The Festival Book for ViBGYOR 2010 was released at the Inaugural Function by Mr. Andre Oliveira , A renowned Brazilian film-maker and musician, who presented it to Dr. Prabhakaran Pazhassi , the Secretary of the Kerala Sangeetha Nadaka Academy (Kerala).

Download it below:

We are all assembled here as south Asians. We may be keralites, gujaratis, srilankans, indians but we are all south Asians. We should never forget that South asia a very important region of the world. 2/3rd of world population lives here. We are a region marked by a huge Diversity of religions, languages, culture and yet we have a Shared heritag. We haved shared Histories, family ties, cultural ties cutting across political borders.. even our Ecosystem – our mountains, rivers flow across the region. We must also remember that we are a very important ‘Market’ in the era of globalization.

South Asia is also a Conflict ridden region. We have conflicts based on religion, nationalities, right to self-determintation as seen in Kashmir, NE, tribal regions of Pakistan and Bangladesh. We have the question of Tamils being excluded on account of their background. And we have the age old conflict based on caste. There are conflicts within respecive countrie and Conflict between nations. It is utterly shameful that our respective governemnts continue with mind boggling Defence spending even as our people don't have drinking water, our children don't have schools to go to and a large percentage of our popultaiton is hungry. It is ironical that the two biggest countries in south Asia pride themsleves for being Nuclear powers. Increasingly our govts are getting posessed with the mindsets of National security. A lot of human rights violations are happening under this paranoiac paradigm. The govt are appropriating sweeping powers to themselves under this paradigm and ordinary citizens are incarcerated without trial without justice. There is so much suspicion of neighbours and our people are denied visas by our different govts. It is interesting how there is Free movement of capital in the region but not of the people under the strict visa regime.

Direction: Renjith Kuzhur , Satyajith Ray Flim & Television Institute, Kolkotta
Music : John P Varkey

2.00 pm at Venue VIOLET

Moderator : Zakia Soman

Speakers:

Babloo Loitongbam (Activist) : AFSPA and the Boarder States

Gauhar Raza (Activist and filmmaker): Indian Constitution and Anti people Legislations

Siddharth Narain (Activist and Lawyer) : IPC 377 and its significance.

Wilfred D’costa (Activist) : State, Terrorism and Repressive Laws

Civic Chandran (Writer and Activist) : Denying and Delaying Justice to Adivasis,Dalits and Minorities

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