Lights, camera & conversation: SamaBhav Film Festival comes to Ahmedabad, to screen films on gender and diversity
The festival features 25 curated films from around the world, including fiction, documentaries, and experimental works that showcase intersectional voices and perspectives. Some of the highlighted films include 'Black Box Diaries' from Japan, 'Call Me Dancer' from the US and UK, and 'We The Puffcorns of India', among others. Over two days, the festival will travel to multiple locations, including five international destinations such as Sri Lanka and the UK, and 23 venues across India, such as Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Chennai, as well as rural districts.
Festival founder and director Harish Sadani told The Indian Express: 'With the support of a committed faculty and youth who are inspired, we are using cinema as a catalyst to spark critical dialogue, self-reflection, and meaningful change around issues of gender, identity, equity, and justice. The festival aims to provide a safe platform to open up, ventilate differences and celebrate diversity in gender.'
Alliance Française d'Ahmedabad in collaboration with Men Against Violence and Abuse (MAVA), a voluntary organisation based in Mumbai, is organising the two-day non-ticketed and independent travelling film festival. The festival is open to all university and college students, young filmmakers, film enthusiasts and representatives of civil society organisations. The film festival timings on July 12-13, from 2 to 8 pm, at The French Gallery, Alliance Française d'Ahmedabad has been deliberately kept in the afternoon for the convenience of participants, said Sadani.
'The travelling film festival would engage youths through stirring conversations… The films cover a wide range of issues ranging from gender-based discrimination, violence against women to transphobia to breaking the gender binaries and toxic masculinity,' Sadani added.
Gender rights activists Renu Khanna, Sejal Dand, Kunthu Banthia, Hirva Thankey, Kunaal, Sumit Waykos, filmmaker Arastu Zakiya, Writer Debeyendu Ganguly, Prof Navdeep Mathur, Prof Chirag Trivedi will be among the key members taking part in the festival.
MAVA has been organising SamaBhav since 2017-18 across the length and breadth of the country. The previous six editions of the film festival have engaged over 18,000 university and college youths, civil society bodies' members being held in 52 cities and 18 rural districts across India, the organisers said.
'These films are more than artistic expressions—they intervene in society, challenge dominant narratives, and expand the space for empathy, introspection, and collective transformation. SamaBhav is not just a festival of screenings; it is a living archive of empathy, resistance and radical hope, engaging young minds and communities across borders,' Sadani said.
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