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*Siddhartha Gautam Film Festival 2010*
*
*
*Call for Films*
*For the Sixth Edition of Siddhartha Gautam Film Festival in Orissa *
*from **July 2-10, 2010** ***
* Entry Closes on: **June 21, 2010** *
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Greetings from *SAATHII* on behalf of *Sampark*, a civil society advocacy
forum for advancing the health and rights of sexual minorities and people
living with HIV (PLHIV) in Orissa.
It’s our immense pleasure to announce that SAATHII and Sampark are going to
organize *“Siddhartha Gautam Film Festival 2010”* in Orissa from July 2-10,
2010. This will be the sixth edition of the film festival, and third in
Orissa.
Interact Worldwide, London and DFID-Civil Society Challenge Fund,
Glasgoware providing us technical and funding support respectively for
this
initiative through a project titled *“*Building the Capacity of People
Living with HIV and Sexual Minorities in Orissa and West Bengal to Advance
their Health and Rights”.
*About Siddhartha Gautam Film Festival *
Siddhartha Gautam was a lawyer and human rights activist and worked on a
variety of issues related to discrimination against vulnerable groups of
people in India. He was one of the first persons in India to talk about
sexuality and HIV/AIDS as human rights issues, and started AIDS Bhedbhav
Virodhi Andolan, the first Indian AIDS activist group, in New Delhi in
1989-90.
This is an effort to continue Siddhartha’s engagement with human rights
issues, and through it, pay tribute to his vision and spirit. The event is a
humble contribution to remember and take forward the pioneering work done by
Siddhartha Gautam to promote and protect the rights of sexual minorities and
people living with HIV. In particular, the film festival tries to support
and encourage Indian filmmakers.
For the first time, SAATHII and its partner organizations organized the
festival in Kolkata in 2003. In 2007, the festival crossed the borders into
Bhadrak district in Orissa, the first ever venue for the festival outside West
Bengal. Bhadrak was also where SAATHII started *mobile film shows,* adding
another innovation to the Siddhartha Gautam Film Festival agenda.
*About SAATHII and Sampark: *SAATHII* *is a registered non-profit
organization that strengthens HIV prevention, care, support, treatment and
associated gender, sexuality, human rights and sexual and reproductive
health initiatives in India. Sampark is a civil society coalition for
advocacy and capacity building of sexual minorities and PLHIV in Orissa to
advance their health and rights. Sampark was formed in March 2009 as part of
an initiative of SAATHII undertaken in technical partnership with Interact
Worldwide, London and with funding support from Department for International
Development – Civil Society Challenge Fund, Glasgow.
*About Siddhartha Gautam Film Festival 2010*
Like 2009, SGFF 2010 would be organized through hall based screenings and
mobile film shows. Hall based screenings would be held on *July 2-3, 2010*in
Bhubaneswar and mobile film shows would be conducted from *July 5-10, 2010**
*in some of the selected districts of Orissa.
*Festival theme: *This year the festival aims to highlight and support legal
efforts to protect the rights of people living with HIV and decriminalize
same-sex love in India. The films will be seen by a diverse audience of
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexed, Kothi, Hijra and other
queer people; people infected or affected by HIV; social workers; health
care providers; government officials; college and university students; and
media persons. Families and friends of queer people and people living with
HIV will be especially welcome.
*A Brief on SAATHII Rainbow Pride Film Award 2010*
We are happy to announce the SAATHII Rainbow Pride Film Award 2010, the
first award of its kind in India that honours Indian films portraying sexual
minorities, issues that concern them and actors in the roles of lesbian,
gay, bisexual or transgender characters. The main aim of the awards is to
make the “voices of sexual minorities” heard by filmmakers and convey the
message that sexual minorities have an opinion on the films that portray
them. These opinions should be taken seriously by the filmmakers and other
artists involved in the making of films, so that the portrayal of sexual
minorities becomes more sensitive and mature. This year the awards would be
decided by a five-member jury of community leaders representing the “rainbow
diversity” among sexual minority communities. At the end of SGFF 2010, the
jury will declare the award winning film(s).
*Call for entries*
Filmmakers interested in participating are requested send their films in the
following format, along with the mentioned documents
*a) Format: *DVD formats (compatible with Indian systems)
*b) Documents : *Screening permission letter, synopsis (which should include
– film title, genre, production / release year, duration, director’s name,
and full contact information - e-mail address, landline / mobile number,
complete postal address)
*c) Still Images:* Also please don’t forget to submit one or two digital
photographs of the film
*d) Length of Videos and Subtitles: *Festival films (shorts, documentaries,
docu-features and feature films, music video) of any length suitable to the
festival themes will be welcome. But all films must be subtitled in English.
We especially encourage films produced in India and those that focus on the
Indian, Indian Diaspora and South Asian contexts.
We will also be approaching a number of filmmakers whose productions are
already available in SAATHII’s reference libraries in Kolkata and
Bhubaneswar.
Please note that there is no entry fee for participation. All films will be
subject to a selection process by the festival jury. SAATHII will be happy
to include the films submitted in its reference libraries which together
constitute one of the largest resources in eastern India for material on
health and human rights.
The selected films along with the festival programming and schedules will be
announced on the SAATHII website in the coming days. Please also look out
for further announcements.
*Deadline for submission: **June 21, 2010***
All queries related to film submission, selection or any other issue should
be addressed to [email protected] with a subject line “SGFF
2010 – Orissa”
*Submission Address: *All copies of the films should be sent to the
following address (Please write *“SGFF 2010 – Orissa”* on the cover of your
submission)
*SAATHII, **Bhubaneswar** Office*
*N3/301, **IRC** **Village**, Nayapalli *
*Bhubaneswar** – 751 015*
*Orissa**, **India***
*Phone: 91 674 255 2845*
*e-mail: [email protected] *
*Website: www.saathii.org *
* *
*For further queries, please contact members of SGFF 2010 organizing
committee: *
1) Biswa Bhusan Pattanayak
2) K. Santosh Kumar
3) Mitali Mohanty
4) Pawan Dhall
*On behalf of Sampark coalition *
