World Tolerance Day Celebrated In Jakarta Through Film Festival

755 films have participated in International Film Festival for Spirituality, Religion and Visionary and World Tolerance Award. This two international film festival again collecting filmmakers from all over the world to celebrate World Tolerance Day at Planet Hollywood, Jakarta.

The event was held to celebrate the World Tolerance Day which falls on 16 November. World Tolerance Day was first proclaimed by the United Nations on 1996, with the hope to strengthen tolerance by improving mutual understanding between cultures and nations. World Tolerance Day celebrations began in an era when increasing extremism, violence and widening conflict marked by neglect of other human life.

This year, the issue of Rohingya and Trump became the main topic of this festival. Damien Dematra, Founder and Director also said that tolerance is under threat following the election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States. According to Trump campaign promises that would prohibit Muslims entered the United States and will shut down the mosques in the US, is a threat to world peace. "With this celebration is expected world leaders are increasingly recognizing the importance of tolerance; because without tolerance of this world will be destroyed, " said the director with hundreds award.

The murder of Muslims by the hard-line monks is an action that aggravates this tragedy. "One way to resolve this tragedy is the unity of a nation itself," said, Natasha, calling on to the UN and world leaders who have the influence to resolve this tragedy. "Tolerance is the way to achieve peace in the world," she said.

Rohingyas itself is an immigrant from Bangladesh who settled in Myanmar. By 2013, their population has reached 1.3 million people. Until now, the killing of Rohingyas continues to occur for many reasons, one of the reason is because they are Muslim. The Dalai Lama himself has condemned this action and said that if the Buddha still exists, he will protect Muslim brothers.

This year, Tolerance Woman of the Year went to the figure of Cheryl Halpern. A female director from the United States who were fighting for women's rights and tolerance through her works.

In this event to, a Brazilian director, Lucia Barata was given the Star of Tolerance Award for her contribution to promoting tolerance.

In this event, it was launched the music film “Smile" by teenage director Natasha Dematra. Music film "Smile" is expected to build awareness to the whole world that our time on Earth is temporary and it's time to do good and live tolerance for others. Film music is self-produced by the World Tolerance Award and is expected to inspire the audience. And was written by Natasha Dematra with young talented music arranger Oin Takaza.

After the 6.5 Richter scale magnitude earthquake that struck Aceh on Dec. 7 at the event was held fundraising CARE FOR ACEH by CARE FOR CHILDREN FOUNDATION. The plan, fundraising results will be brought to Aceh in the middle of this month. This assistance is expected to help the disaster victims.

Earlier, the opening ceremony of the festival awards night was held in Bali on 23-25 November. This event is full supported by King Jembrana, Bali Anak Agung Gde Agung B. Sutedja.Filmmakers in attendance at this event are Stanley Jacobs, Megan Rohrer, Craig Leon from the United States, Rima Irani from Lebanon, Aleksandras Brokas from Lithuania, Sion Joseph Ribeiro from the Middle East, Arunkumar Deivanayagam from India, Cheryl Halpern, Aleksandras Brokas from Lusitania , Bernarda Avsenik and Alenka Fajfar Gnezda from Slovenia, Jana Younes from Lebanese, Lucia Barata and Fernanda Huffel from Brazil, Liu Wei from China together with Yao Honghemei, Chen Tanrui, Yang Kaixin, Huaqing Jin, Chunchao Tang, Liu Jin, Li xinyi, Jiasheng Cao, Can Jian, Li Qian, Philippines filmmaker and producer Carlo Jay O. Cuevas and Caloy Tabunda, Jozef Malocha from Poland, Michael Raso, Christina Gopal and Juan Manuel Fajardo Benavides.

This event is in collaboration with other international scale festivals, International Film Festival for Spirituality, Religion and Visionary, World Tolerance Award, International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Comedy, Filmmakers of the Year Film Festival, Director's Awards and Royal World Prize.

The event is supported by the Council of the People Creative (DKR), World Film Council, Yayasan Peduli Anak Indonesia (PENA), Alliance Film Festival, Cinema 21, i-Hebat International Volunteers and Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) as media partner.