Srinagar, Sept. 11 -- Kashmir's first International Film Festival should be judged by what follows it, rather than by how well the event itself was staged.

Indian cinema treated Kashmir as scenery for decades, borrowing its mountains and meadows for song sequences while the region built almost no film industry of its own.

The valley has educated young people, strong local stories and locations that filmmakers already prize, but it still lacks script development houses, production support, training programs and regular local screenings.

A festival that ends with a closing ceremony changes little of that.

The same disparity runs through literature and the arts. Students spend years in Kashmiri colleges and universities reading Dostoevsk...