Disaster, tragedy and film

In case you were curious to know why there's this spate of disaster films being spoken of (below), the mailing list Docuwallahs2 recently carried this announcement by Max Martin, editor of Indiadisasters.org about plans to hold a film festival on the theme of disasters, in October. He writes:

The idea is to focus on the theme of disaster rehabilitation, throwing in aspects of preparedness, rights and standards. We have received some entries specifically on tsunami rehabilitation. And promises about some more films that are nearing completion. We have yet to make a final list. We are plannning it as a multi-city initiative, possibly with some screenings in temporary rehabilitation shelters and fishing hamlets. Definitely there will be screenings in Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram. Possibly in Nagapattinam and Kanyakumari as well.