Thursday, May 19 2005 12:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

United Nations: The United Nations is organising its first documentary film festival this weekend in New York on the activities of its various field office agencies as a part of observance of its 60th anniversary this year.

The documentaries would portray the work done by them in response to decisions by the member States including empowerment of the poor, healing of the sick and bringing justice to the exploited.

"Secretary-General (Kofi) Annan has seized the opportunity the UN's 60th anniversary provides to review the work of the Organisation and to focus on how we can do things better," UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor said.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), elaborated in a Declaration adopted at a UN summit in 2000 to reduce or eliminate a host of socio-economic ills, "serve as an excellent list of priorities about issues that we consider at the heart of our work", he added.

The documentaries show how the UN works with people around the world to make the MDG's a reality and how real people work with the UN to achieve the goals, one village at a time, Tharoor said.

The awards will be given in two categories - Best Stories from the Field Short - those shorter than 40 minutes, and Best Stories from the Field Feature - those longer than 40 minutes.