Speaking at the inauguration of the event, chairperson of the fest, Basanta Thapa, said "We´ve toiled hard in making the KIMFF an internationally celebrated event. This festival celebrates not only mountains but Nepal."[break]
The chief guest at the event was Mingma Sherpa, a mountaineer, who spoke about climate change and its undeniable relationship with mountains.
"We need to divert immediate attention to preserving the mountains," he said. Shrepa is the first Nepali to climb the world´s highest fourteen 8,000meter peaks.
Also a part of the inauguration was the screening of "Buried in Tears," a documentary by Ashok Thapa. The film focused on the lives of struggling migrant workers in Korea. Through the film, Thapa shared the hopes, fears and the fight of these workers for their basic human rights.
"I believed this was an important story to tell because not many people know the actual conditions in which migrant workers have to live," he said. Having reached Korea as a migrant worker himself, Thapa had the opportunity to film incidents as they were taking place.
KIMFF 2011 will also hold special screenings of Toni Hagen´s "Cultural Vignettes of Nepal," a film showcasing Nepal´s dances and music shot in the 1950s, and "Voice for Justice," a film by OHCHR on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, on December 10, 2011.
A total of 44 films alongside six Finnish shorts from the Tampere Film Festival are scheduled for screening at the event.
Cultural producer based in Helsinki, Finland, Helena Mielonen; British architect, mountaineer and landscape painter John Innerdale; and scholar, critic, actor, Associate Professor of English at Tribhuvan University, Sanjeev Upreti, are the three-member jury team who will be judging the films in the International Competition category.
The Nepal Panorama category has six films short-listed to be screened, and since this year´s festival coincides with Visit Nepal 2011, the main focus of the festival is on adventure and exploration.
"Pushing New Frontiers" is the slogan for this edition of KIMFF which has films focusing on a wide array of themes ranging from conflict, culture, wildlife, environment, globalization, gender, development to lifestyles in and around mountains.
Rashtriya Sabha Griha and Nepal Tourism Board, both on Exhibition Road, are the venues for showing th films. Tickets are priced at Rs 40 each with a 50% discount available for students.
The fest is slated to close on December12.
Words 400/417 sahara/the week Dec 08 Edited by Peter
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