First film festival at Citizen Nagar, 2002 riots refugee colony, kicks off in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad: A two-day film festival at Citizen Nagar, a relief colony of people displaced in 2002 post Godhra riots, kicked off on Saturday.

This is the first time a film festival has been organised at the locality which stands right beside the dumpyard at Pirana on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

"One of the reasons behind holding a film festival is to highlight the plight of the residents for better civic amenities," Noor Bano, a resident who is also a part of the festival organising team.

She said that there are about 120 families who largely shifted here after riots broke out at Naroda Patiya. "We hope that this event highlights the poor condition of civic amenities and helps to improve them," she said.

Credit: Special Arrangement 

The invite has names of six NGOs, including Drishti, Bunniyaad, US department of state bureau of educational and cultural affairs, Film Independent and Global Media Makers.

"Over two days, we will watch films that tell unknown stories about our country, its fights and its joys," reads the invite. Through the event, which is open to all, the story of Ekta Nagar is also being told. The films being screened include Eeb Allay Ooo, Kayo Kayo Colour, Amdavad Ma Famous, Holy Rights, Superman of Malegaon and Joy Run.

The locality came into being after riots broke out following the Sabarmati Express train burning incident at Godhra. A large number of families from Naroda Patiya, where 97 Muslims were killed, were displaced. They shifted here by the end of 2003 and have been living since then sans basic civic amenities and mound of garbage.

"Our focus is also to highlight the inhuman condition of the residents. We have invited top civic and police authorities to witness the event but, as expected, no one turned up," said Kaleem Siddique, an activist who is part of the organising team.