Bam-e-Dunya Film Festival 2021

Organizers: ICIMOD and WWF-Pakistan

About the festival

The Bam-e-Dunya Film Festival is the first film festival of its kind in Gilgit-Baltistan and is aimed at encouraging local youth to promote mountain research and narratives on various mountain topics, including the lives of mountain communities impacted by change and issues of ecological fragility and sustainable mountain development. This festival also encourages youth to explore mountain research blended with advanced and creative film making to communicate messages for a wider audience. The festival will showcase diverse films on a variety of subject matters, ranging from social, economic, ecological, and environmental issues.

World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) have joined hands with Karakorum International University (KIU), Special Communication Organization (SCO), EVK2CNR, Gilgit-Baltistan Rural Support Organization (GBRSP), Alpine Club, and Tourism Department of Gilgit-Baltistan to organize this festival, where films from Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral will be screened for students, policymakers, and the general public.

The film festival will provide an opportunity for filmmakers to share and discuss local and regional challenges, opportunities and success stories, and allow for local and national researchers and filmmakers to interact, discuss, network, and explore opportunities for joint ventures, paving the way for more effective documentation of the region’s issues and their policy implications for conservation and development.

Background

The Bam-e-Dunya, the ‘Roof of the World’, includes the Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Pamir Landscape which stretches across parts of Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, and Tajikistan. The Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan is part of the Bam-e-Dunya. It is endowed with rich biodiversity and ecosystem services, especially the much-needed water resources that millions of people downstream depend on for food production.

However, there are many changes occurring in the region that have major conservation and development implications, including climate and environmental change, that offer diverse subjects for researchers and filmmakers. Remote mountain communities too are now rapidly transforming with improved connectivity and access to emerging digital technologies and markets.

There is great interest and motivation among the youth to produce and display films on various socioecological, economic, and environmental subjects. Unfortunately, Gilgit-Baltistan lacks the spaces and platforms where research and filmmaking can be nurtured, showcased, and shared.

The inaugural edition of the Bam-e-Dunya Film Festival will present a wide range of films that tell stories of mountain communities, adventure sports, folk culture, environment, wildlife, and tourism of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Awards

• Best documentary (First, second, and third awards)
• Best short film – fiction (First, second, and third awards)
• Jury Choice award
• Women in Film award

Schedule

For more information, visit WWF-Pakistan’s website