Bengaluru to host film festival focusing on domestic violence on March 30

NGO Aweksha will conduct a day-long film festival on March 30 as a part of its Women’s History Month celebrations.

The event, organised in collaboration with Bengaluru City University, will have ‘Domestic Violence and Women Empowerment’ as its theme. It will include two film screenings and a panel discussion. It will take place at the university’s Jnana Jyoti Auditorium seminar hall from 10.15 am.

The first film Idi Katha Maatramena (Whose Story Is It Anyway?) (1983), by Yugantar Film Collective, focuses on dowry and dowry deaths, and broadens the discourse on domestic violence.

The second film The Great Indian Kitchen (2021) by Jeo Baby tells a story of a newly wed woman who struggles to be the submissive wife.

The panel discussion, chaired by social activist Akkai Padmashali, will focus on domestic violence, gender roles in domestic spaces, and ways of empowering women.

It will also have Dr Sudeshna Mukherjee, associate professor at the Women’s Studies Department at Bangalore University; Sumitra Acharya, lawyer and women’s rights activist; and Kajol Singh, Aweksha’s project coordinator, as participants.

The film festival marks the conclusion of Aweksha’s month-long programmes that started with a blood donation camp at St Joseph’s University on March 9. It also held another programme at the burns ward of Victoria Hospital on March 17, recognising the services of housekeeping staff in the recovery of burns survivors.

The ‘Survivors Speak, Survivors Listen’ programme held at the Aweksha office in Richmond Town on March 18 had survivors speak about their experience of domestic violence.