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| The angklung performance by the artists of Kampung Cempluk enliven the closing ceremony of Youth Peace International Film Festival in UMM. |
THE SERIES of Youth Peace International Film Festival (YPIFF) were closed with the intercultural performances and the screening of promoting-peace films by countries from around the world. Held on UMM Helipad on Friday night (4/12), the open-stage closing ceremony of YPIFF succeeded enchanting hundreds of participant.
YPIFF is an international festival of peace-promoting films which is held as the result of international cooperation between the UMM International Relation Office (IRO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). There are many countries involved, such as New Zealand, France, poland, Italy, USA, Thailand, Czech Republic, Australia, Mexico, Tibet, England, India, Germany, Russia, China, Morocco, Serbia and Belgium.
The President of YPIFF, Pipin Ramadhani Thahir, said that this festival was aimed to establish public opinions, both in regional and international extent, that harmony and peace are able to be promoted through film. She mentioned one of the films entitled ‘ The Way of Tea’ which tells a story about tea drinking that eradicate the prejudice and stereotype between the Muslim immigrants and indigenous people in France.
On the first day of the festival, there were an international seminar and workshop of production management and screenplay writing assissted by sveral intercultural figures, such as the Acting Director of Jawaharlal Nehru Indian Cultural Centre (JNICC) Rohit Babbar, ther Director of Russian Center for Science and Culture (RCSC) Vitaly Glinkin and also the director of film ‘How the World Teaches happiness to People’ and ‘Tok Tok Tok’, Agung Yudha.
The Assistant of Rector for International Relation of UMM, Soeparto, expected that YPIFF can be an annual agenda of UMM since it is the first international film festival ever held in Malang. “Gratitude for all the representatives and participants. Insha Allah,YPIFF will be hold in every year,” he said.
The closing ceremony presented the cultural performances such as Indian Kathak Dance by JNICC, Chinese Fan Dance by Confucius Institute, angklung playing by Kampung Cempluk, Nginang Dance by Sansekerta Community and choral performance by the Student Choir ‘Gita Surya’ UMM.
In the middle of the cultural performances, there were screenings of five officially selected films, which are Last Children from USA, The Way of Tea from France, Power from India and Germany, 05.55 from Indonesia and I am Sami from England. According to Twinkle Basu, one of the participants from India, these films contain cultural values which are typical of each country that potential to promote peace.
“Movie is a good medium in spreading peace,” said Twinkle. (fid/han/t_far)
