Film fest to mark 75th International Women's Day

PUNE: On the occasion of the 75th International Women's Day on March 8, the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), in association with the Aashay Club and the women's organisation Aayam, have organised 'Women's Liberation in Retrospect,' a four-day film festival where award-winning and women-centric films and talks by experts on women's issues portrayed in the films screened, will take the centrestage.
The event will be inaugurated by veteran critic and scholar Pushpa Bhave. Vidya Bal, a 30-min film on the social activist and the founder of well known Marathi women's magazine 'Miloon Saryajani', directed by Sandhya Deorukhkar and Ashwini Dhongde, will be screened on the occasion.
A bouquet of eight films from India, Iran, Cuba, the US and Malaysia, which centre on female protagonists and address various issues related to women from different culture and societies, will be screened at the festival. Film expert Shyamala Vanarase, Sushama Datar from 'Miloon Saryajani' and Rekha Inamdar-Sane will introduce the films.
The Day I Became A Woman, directed by Marzieh Makhmalbaf, is an award-winning drama depicting three different stories of women struggling for an identity in Iranian society. KG George's Malayalam film Adaminte Vaariyellu tells the story of three women tackling a crisis in a family, while Malaysian film The Beautiful Washing Machine, directed by James Lee, shows the conflict between a woman and the man she chooses to dump.
Aparna Sen's Paromitar Ek Din explores the dual themes of friendship and loneliness between two female protagonists. The Hours, Stephen Daldry's award-winning American drama, featuring Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep, depicts three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway. Renuka Shahane-directed Rita, Basu Bhattacharya's acclaimed Hindi film Anubhav and Portrait of Teresa by Pastor Vega from Cuba, are the other offerings at the festival.