Rights Watch

Now eight of these films will be shown at the Flashpoint Human Rights Film Festival,which starts in the Capital on January 20. The festival is on in Mumbai currently. Rangayan mainly aims to draw students to the festival to make them aware of human rights issues. “I hope the festival shakes up the audience intelligently,” he says.

The schedule includes screening of The Sari Soldiers,Red Light,Suddenly Last Winter,To Shoot an Elephant,Song for Amine and The 10 Conditions of Love.

The films talk about human trafficking and child prostitution,war crimes,religious fundamentalism,homophobia,violence against women and death penalty. “These movies will shock you and wake you up to the new realities that we all must understand and counter. The festival will hurl you into the lives of those brave people who have the courage to stand up alone against the tyranny of the oppressor,” says filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt,who inaugurated the Mumbai leg of the festival.

Taco Ruighaver,director of Movies That Matter Film Festival,the Netherlands,echoes,“These activists and/or their organisations play a crucial role in the worldwide protection and promotion of human rights.”

On the sidelines of the festival,there will be panel discussions on topics such as ‘human trafficking and inadequacy of the law’,‘violence against women’ and ‘religious intolerance’. The festival will travel to New Delhi. “We will screen the same movies from January 20 to 22,” says Rangayan.