Posters drawn by the participants at the We Care film festival in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 14: With the aim to raise awareness on disability, the fourth edition of We Care film festival began today at the Engineer’s Institute in the city.

The two-day festival is organised annually by the city based social organisation Aaina in collaboration with the New Delhi based organisation Brotherhood.

The inaugural day began with the state tourism and culture minister Ashok Panda launching a poster making competition where students from Utkal University of Culture, BK College of Art and Crafts and other colleges took part. They drew on various themes. A few differently-abled artistes like Rajesh Mishra made the paintings with their mouths using paintbrushes. The competition was judged by veteran artistes like Ramahari Jena, Asim Basu and Lalatendu Rath.

We Care, since its inception in 2003, has been a touring film festival celebrating ‘diversity’. In 2011, it came to Bhubaneswar for the first time. The festival is divided into three segments- competitions, film screenings and panel discussions.

While handpicked films on the issues of disability from all over the country were shown on the first day, day two is reserved for entries in different categories of competition.

Today, the first screening was a cinematic tribute to Sarat Chandra Pujari, the eminent actor who passed away this year. Then there was an array of short films ranging from one-minute-long to 60-minute-long that were shown. The umbrella theme for the films was autism and management. While a speech by director Nila Madhab Panda was appreciated, satirical poetry by Gyana Hota left everyone in splits.

“It serves a dual purpose. First, it creates a lot of understanding among fellow citizens regarding disability and secondly it encourages young filmmakers to work on compelling subjects,” said Swaha Das, the maker of the one-minute-film Boond, which has been short-listed for the debutant category.

“We wish to dispel all myths associated with disability. We call for more films on the poignant subject because the audiovisual medium leaves a lasting impression. For four years, the response has been brilliant. In fact, many Odia documentary filmmakers see We Care festival as a great platform,” said Sneha Mishra, founder secretary of Aaina, the co-hosts of the festival.

Aaina also works on women and child right issues.