Fifth International Film Festival inaugurated by Umashree

The fifth edition of the international film festival on water, titled "Voices from the Waters" was inaugurated by award-winning actress Umashree. The festival aims at understanding water from different perspectives. This time, the films were screened at six different venues in Bangalore for three days. 51 documentaries and 1 feature film on water were screened at the festival.

The internationally acclaimed documentaries screened at the festival included H2Oil, Addicted to Plastic, The Voice of the Mapuche, The Waters of Chenini and The Soul of Water. The feature film screened was The Damned Rain, which focused on suicides in the Vidharba region of Maharastra. There were documentaries from Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Iran, Iraq, U.K., U.S., South Africa and Canada, besides Indian documentaries.

Flagging off the festival, actor Umashree hailed the efforts of the organizers in creating awareness about water which is a serious issue. After watching the inaugural film by Ajith Samuel, Umashree said, "The dance of rainwater is slowly turning into tears."

Actor-director Suresh Heblikar, the keynote speaker at the festival, cited numerous examples of development taking precedence over environment. "In the Global Investors' Meet, the biggest investment came from the steel industry which is extremely water intensive. Where are the policies? Politicians are busy instigating people on diverting a river in North Karnataka for their own vested interests," he said.