Arif Yousuf-directed  documentary film titled ‘Blockade’ won the best documentary award at The World Independent Film Festival (TWIFF) in the United States.

The announcement has been made on the official website of the festival recently and the documentary film will be screened on September 23 at New People Cinema, San Francisco, USA. ‘Blockade’ depicts the story of how Philadelphians and others in the region risked their life to stop the genocide during the struggle for independence by blocking US arms shipments to Pakistan.

The documentary film (Blockade) is about the inspiring story of how a group of people in Delaware Valley area (Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC), irrespective of their nationality or religion, stood up in 1971 against the brutal oppression of the Pakistani military in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). The military was carrying out the genocide of epic proportions, which led to a liberation war, and eventually the birth of a new nation, Bangladesh. The film covers a series of events that started in June 1971 when the New York Times published a story that two Pakistani military ships were coming to the Eastern Seaboard of the US to load up arms supplied by the US government without the Congressional approval and despite the official ban.