19th IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival to begin from March 7 with focus on Iranian cinema

A three-day workshop, titled Balancing Acts, will be organised on balancing messaging and storytelling in films where participants will be trained in writing scripts and making films which are both entertaining and gender sensitive.The film festival will come to a close on March 9 with the screening of French director Alice Diops Towards Tenderness 2016.

The 19th edition of IAWRT Asian Women's Film Festival will begin here at the India International Centre from March 7 with over 60 films from across 20 countries. The gala, organised by International Association of Women in Radio & Television (IAWRT), will open with Iranian director Sepideh Farsi's ''The Siren'' (2023), an award-winning animated feature that examines the human cost of war and how it scars generations.

The three-day event will showcase feature films, documentaries, short fictions, animation, student films and experimental work with focus on short fiction films from Iran, the organisers said.

Some of the highlighted works at the festival include Palestinian director Mai Masri's 2001 documentary ''Frontiers of Dreams and Fears'', Indian filmmaker Sreemoyee Singh's ''And, Towards Happy Alleys'' (2023), South Korean director Shin Su-won's ''Hommage'' (2021) and Turkish filmmakers Ekin Ilkbağ and Idil Akkuşn's ''Duet'' (2022).

The festival will also pay tribute to India documentary filmmaker Chandita Mukherjee with a screening of her film “Totanama” (1991). Apart from films, Q&A sessions with filmmakers, conversations on women and film craft, and exhibition and workshop by the women of the community art project 'Rafooghar - The House that Mends' will be organised.

The works on display are based on the themes of 'Mapping Mobility - Zindagi ka Naksha', exploring the domestic lives and daily routine of the women, and 'Expressive Portraits - Meri Pehchaan', featuring embroidered portraits of women, centred around their identities.

The women of Rafooghar will also organise a collective stitching experience to add stitches to a work-in-progress quilt. A three-day workshop, titled 'Balancing Acts', will be organised on balancing messaging and storytelling in films where participants will be trained in writing scripts and making films which are both entertaining and gender sensitive.

The film festival will come to a close on March 9 with the screening of French director Alice Diop's ''Towards Tenderness'' (2016).