Third Dharamshala Film Festival to begin on October 30

The third edition of Dharamshala International Film Festival, featuring 24 full-length feature films and documentaries, will begin on October 30.
The four-day festival will also screen Hansal Mehta's 'City Lights' and the director will be present at the event, which will take place at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, in McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala.
The highlight of the festival according to the directors, Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, are films on the conflict in Syria catering to different aspects of the issue.
While 'Return to Homs' is about a group of young revolutionaries battling government forces in the besieged city of Homs in western Syria, 'The Square' is a view of personal stories unfolding against the background of the Egyptian revolution.

Another addition to the upcoming edition, which will invite around 12 filmmakers from India and abroad, is that five budding directors from the Indian Himalayan regions will be selected to attend film screenings, master classes and workshops, and engage in one-on-one mentoring sessions with established filmmakers.
"We want to nurture these raw talents and feel this is a good platform to show them. We hope they learn something. We got a lot of entries and they showed their work to the judges, on the basis of which, they got selected," said Sarin, who is also a filmmaker from Dharamshala.

Movies like 'Nirnay', 'Liar's Dice' and 'Bringing Tibet Home' will also be a part of the festival. A food, arts and crafts fair will also be organised during the festival.

Sarin said that with the festival, she hopes to create a truly meaningful, non-partisan cultural platform to engage and involve all communities that inhabit the area- Indians, Tibetan refugees and expatriates.
"People love cinema there but can't watch. As my husband Tenzing Sonam and I are Dharamshala natives, they are happy there is no one from outside coming there to open such a festival. They feel the event belongs to them," Sarin said.