Asian women's film fest to open in Kerala

Kozhikode, Nov 3 (IANS) The Asian Women's Film Festival, billed as the first all-women's film fest, is to open in this north Kerala city Saturday.

The festival, which concludes Nov 7, will showcase 24 films - all made by women from countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and India.

"This is the first time that such an all-women's film festival, which is organised by women too, is being screened in Kerala," H. Gargi, one of the organisers, told IANS.

She said the primary objective of the festival was to encourage more women in Kerala to enter the world of films.

"The only area where women in Kerala work in films is acting. We hope that through this festival we'll be able to motivate many talented women in Kerala to explore other realms of the film industry," said Gargi, who is former Maoist K. Ajitha's daughter.

She added that only documentary films would be screened at the festival.

To ensure more participation, many of these films were screened in select college campuses here over the last week. This would raise an interest in students to partake in the discussions to be held after each film.

"We feel our efforts would bear fruits," added Gargi, who is an engineer by profession.

The film festival comes to Kerala after shows in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore.