9th Mumbai International Film Fest
With a plethora of short films and documentaries creating magic and drawing a positive response from the audience, filmmakers from the North-East truly made their presence felt at the 9th Mumbai International Film Fest.
What’s common between Haobam Paban Kumar, Metevinuo Sakhrie, Altaf Mazid, Gautam Bora and Mauleenath Senapati, besides the fact that they all participated in the Ninth Mumbai International Film Fest (MIFF) and are from the North-East? They all thrived to show to the rest of India and the world that the NE is not just about violence and insurgency — there are many more other aspects to explore.
While there’s no denying the fact that many of the films dealt with the problems the people of the region face or have been facing through ages, it is also true that most of the films caught on the camera the different hues of life — be it the strong community bonding or the deep attachment with nature — and how the two, people and nature, are interdependent on each other.
Truly, the NE had a formidable presence among the 30 countries that participated in the MIFF for documentary, short and animation films held at the PL Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Academy from 3rd February to 9th. While some films took part in the competition in various categories, others were screened as part of a special NE package. The daily special screening of NE films was by in itself recognition of the filmmakers of the region.
Top of the rank was Haobam Paban Kumar’s AFSPA, 1958, which won the Best Critic Award. The film is a diary of the events that took place in Manipur from the day Th Manoroma Devi died, till a youth — Pebam Chittaranjan — died after setting himself ablaze protesting against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). AFSPA,1958 was in the competition in the international category.
Haobam from Manipur has been in this field for the last eight years. Haobam’s documentary Kangla won an award at the 14th VGC-CEC Educational Video Competition, 2001. When asked about the present filmmaking scenario in Manipur, Haobam said: “Since the last three to four years, digital films are being made in Manipur in a greater scale. In fact it is the best in India. But there is still a long way to go.”
Metevinuo Sakhrie’s Binding Threads looks at the various strands that bind an Angami Naga individual to his community. This was for the first time a documentary from Nagaland had been screened at an event of such a magnitude. “My film is about life in an Angami Naga village. How each individual is bonded with the community through different threads of social, economic, cultural and political ties, which is the basis of the common bonding.”
Not new to filmmaking, Sakhrie has directed and produced about nine films — a rare feat in Nagaland. Her other films are Where Are The Moon…The Legend of Sopbunuo, Mavericks, A Cut Above The Rest, et al.
Sakhrie feels though more and more people are showing interest in making films, filmmaking is still in a nascent stage in Nagaland. “DD commissioned films are helping documentary filmmakers though. I would love to make a film on peace instead of depicting the turmoil of Nagaland,” Sakhrie says.
Veteran filmmaker from Assam Gautam Bora, who has many awards under his belt both in India and abroad, was a jury member in the national category. His film Sons of Abotani — The Missings, a documentary on the Missing tribe of Assam, which has won the Golden Lotus for the Best Non-Feature Film at the 39th National Film Festival of India, was screened at the NE special package. This is the story about the Missing tribe, which mostly lives along the Brahmaputra river. Their journey through time and how they live in harmony with nature.
“People went mad when the July 26 floods came in Mumbai. But the Missing community lives with the floods half the year around and knows how to sustain in such a situation. They have learnt throughout their lives,” Bora said. On the special NE package, Bora said: “We were given a very limited time slot and so we could bring few films. But there are more good films.”
Asked about the filmmaking scenario in Assam, Bora says, “It’s very bad. There is scarcity of market for documentaries and short films. There is no movement for good films. But lets hope for a bright future where we will bring brilliant films from our region.”
Next in the line was Altaf Mazid’s documentary Bhal Khabar, which was screened in the national category. The film is about a writer who looks for a bit of good news in the days of the Assam Movement. Finally, the writer discovers a small piece of news item in a newspaper, which gives him hope. Altaf Mazid’s fiction Las Vegasat (In Las Vegas) was also screened in the national category.
Mazid, from Assam, is a critic-turned-filmmaker whose films Jibon and Lakhtokiat Golam were screened earlier in MIFF. “I would not say that the filmmaking scenario is bad but there is very little scope for meaningful and creative cinema. There is lack of market for such films so people make commercial films,” he says.
Mazid said he would love to make a film on issues like the immigrant problem in Assam. “People say Bangladeshis will destroy Assam but what about western influence on our society? I feel very strict monitoring on the borders will help solve the immigrant problem.”
Assam’s Mauleenath Senapati’s Where The Tallest Grass Grows highlights man’s abiding relationship with bamboo within the grassroots fold where life is impossible without bamboo. “Assam has a rich film history but which is quite unrecorded. We have Jyoti Prasad Agarwal as an example, which says in itself how old is our film history,” he says.
When asked about whether he has any plans of making a film on the present situation in Assam, Senapati says: “It affects the sensitivity of every person. I have the interest but it may not have a direct approach. It will get reflected in a social theme.” Notably, Senapati’s film The Invisible won the Best Cinematography Award instituted by the Consortium of Educational Councils, India in 2002.
Besides the above, there were a host of other films from NE or about NE, which were either part of the competition or special screening.
Dalanglin Dkhar’s (Khasi/Eng) The Narrow Path is the story of the Late Silon Dkhar’s journey, about how she was the first one to convert to Christianity, bringing up five children as a single mother.
Moni Bhattacharjee’s (Assamese fiction) The Reflection is about Kanu, a struggling research fellow whose photograph appears on TV as a dreaded extremist and he doesn’t know what to do.
Suresh Menon’s documentary The Wet Desert is about the wettest place on earth Cherrapunji, which faces water scarcity in the winter season.
Joshy Joseph’s documentary And the Bamboo Blooms studies the relationship between the tribals and bamboo from birth to death. It also investigates the flowering of the bamboo plant in Manipur and Mizoram.
V Packirisamy’s documentary Mizoram — A Haven of Peace looks into Mizoram’s political and socio-economic development since independence.
Then there is Moji Riba from Arunachal Pradesh, whose film Prayers For New Goods explores the indigenous religion of tribal groups inhabiting Arunachal, who have with time evolved themselves in the process of interpreting life.
Moji Riba’s And Silently, The Drums Wait is a story of a youth dormitory.
Aribam Shyam Sharma’s Yelhou Jagoi (The Dances of the Lai Haraoba) is about the Lai Haraoba festival of Manipur. His film Imagi Ningthem (My precious son) had bagged the Grand Prix at Nantes in 1982.
Hemanta Das’ (Assamese/English) Drummers of Koihati was in the NE special package. His film centres around Mohan Chandra Barman, known as Mohan dhuliya, who picked up the art at the age of 10 and died when he was 100 years. The film shows how even a national award does not help people like Mohan make both ends meet. This film bagged the national award for Best Anthropological & Ethnographic Film in 2000.
P Kishore’s documentary Tripura depicts the various natural resources of the state which could make Tripura one of the most developed in the country if the terrorism problem is solved.
Assam’s Aparaj’s film Fragrance of the Black Stone was an abstract one.
Rajula Shah’s (Hindi/Manipuri doc) film Beyond The Wheel takes a look across cultures and tradition, which bars women from engaging in certain activities.
Biju Toppo’s (Kurukh doc) Kora Rajee —The land of the Diggers is about adivasi labourers working in the tea gardens of the North-East.
“This is the first time that there is a North-East special package in a festival of such magnitude. This is for beginners. There are films about Lai Haraoba, about a Karbi village, on Arunachal’s religious beliefs, Cherrapunji, et al. We cannot compare them with other films. Other films are based on issues but we are basically showing films dealing with life, economy and culture. The good news is that people are watching them and the response is very good. I would like to say that North-East is the old paradise of documentaries,” said Samudra Gupta Kashyap, curator and presenter of the North-East package.
One can only hope this is the beginning and more good films will come out from the region, proving that the North-East can also move shoulder to shoulder with their counterparts or even ahead.
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