from Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji (GA)

Panaji, Nov 21: On the sidelines of International Film Festival of India, a state-based NGO has organized another film festival during the same days.

"'Goan People's Film Festival', a festival screening Indian films and a Bangladeshi film will be held from November 22 to November 25 in Panaji," Jason Keith Fernandes, an organizer, said.

India Untouched – Stories of a people apart, a film directed by Stalin K highlighting the plight of untouchability will be the inaugural film for the festival.

The film is a fallout of Stalin's four-year-long traveling through length and breadth of India to expose continued oppression of 'Dalits', the broken people who suffer under a 4000-year-old religious system.

"Spanning across eight states and four religions, the film will make it impossible for anyone to deny that untouchability continues to be practiced in India," Fernandes said.

The multilingual film has its dialogues in Hindi, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telagu and Malayalam with English sub-titles. 

The short films on iron ore mining issue plaguing the state of Goa will also be screened during the festival under the title 'Assault on Tribal Livelihoods and challenges to Mining.'

Touching yet another crucial topic, the festival will also screen films on changes in Goa villages vis-à-vis special economic zones, mega projects and tourism, Fernandes added.

Bangladeshi film 'Stories of Change' will be the closing documentary film for the festival. The film directed by Simon and Sara is about the lives of five women aging from 16 to 60 belonging to different walk of life.