In this age of increasing disasters, filmmakers have taken part of the onus upon themselves to create awareness on how disaster risk can be reduced.
The awareness campaign for this will be spearheaded by ‘Shock Waves 2012 - the Second International Film Festival on Disaster Risk Reduction’ which has been organised by Global Forum for Disaster Reduction (GFDR) on August 3 and 4 at India Habitat Centre in collaboration with Japan Foundation.
The inaugural function will see the beginning of a new wave of cinema that will focus on the reduction of disaster risks.
The festival plans to screen films received from different parts of the world in six categories namely - Learnings from Japan, Living with Disasters, Beyond Disasters (Sustainable Development), Indigenous Knowledge and Practices, Protecting our Earth (CCA and Environment issues) and Culture of Disaster Preparedness (School and Community Focus).
The festival sees a total of 26 films including some from Japan, Sri Lanka, Armenia, Nepal, Kenya, Cambodia as also India. The festival opens with the Japanese entry Can you see our lights? which was the first film made after Tsunami.
The film is being screened under the Learnings from Japan category, which also sees Setting Sail from the Ruins and Japan after 3.11: Disaster Prevention Education.
Living with Disasters is a category devoted to human interest stories and case studies from around the world as also lessons learned from various global disasters.
This section includes films from Cambodia (When the Mekong Rises); Armenia (Living with Disasters); Sri Lanka (Preparing for Risk Reduction) and India (Are You Ready? and Village of Dust, City of Water).
Beyond Disasters sees films which focus on development related issues which can help in mitigating disasters. Local Voices, Global Choices: Disasters are a Development Concern highlights cases studies from India, Malawi and Guatemala and Vangoca Project: Best Practices Model is a Vietnamese entry.
This section also includes other films from India like Marble Mutton with Slurry Water and The Sea Change.
Indigenous Knowledge and Practices focuses on raising awareness while Protecting our Earth talks about issues related to environmental protection and climate change.
The festival will include panel discussions with disaster management professionals, policy makers and film experts after the screening of films in each category. The festival has also invited student participation to create awareness on a larger scale.
The festival will be from 10am to 4pm at IHC.