Japan and NE strengthening cultural ties through movies

16 documentaries from the region to feature at Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2019

Our Correspondent
IMPHAL, Oct. 9 (EMN): The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2019, which will commence in Japan’s northern city of Yamagata (Honshu) from October 10 to the 17th, will feature 16 documentaries from North East India under a special section- “Rustle of Spring, Whiff of Gunpower: Documentaries from Northeast India,” according to Film Society of Manipur (FSM).
The films from Manipur are Aribam Syam Sharma’s “Orchids of Manipur”, “Yelhou Jagoi: The Dances of Lai Haraoba”, “The Monpas of Arunachal Pradesh”, Haobam Paban Kumar’s “Phum-Shang” and Oinam Doren’s “Songs of Mashangva”.

Other films mostly based in Assam in the upcoming festival are Pinky Brhma Choudhury’s “An Autumn Fable”, Mukul Haloi’s “Tales from Our Childhood”, Gautam Bora’s “Old Man River”, Subasri Krishnan’s “What the Fields Remember”, Altaf Mazid’s “The Broken Song”, while the two films based in Arunachal Pradesh are Sanjay Kak’s “In the Forest Hangs a Bridge” and Moji Riba’s “Prayers for New Gods”.

Shillong-based filmmaker Tarun Bhartiya’s films “When the Hens Crow” and “Not Allowed” besides Prem Vaida’s “New Rhythms” in Nagaland and Nepoleon Thanga’s “MNF: The Mizo Uprising” will also be part of the special section of the festival (October 11-14) to be held at two different venues.

The programme has been set by the festival authority in collaboration with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation as part of its ongoing initiative “Preserving and Sharing the Histories and Memories of North East India”, FSM informed through a press release on Tuesday.

The Sasakawa Peace Foundation has invited Manipur’s legendary filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma and young dynamic filmmaker Haobam Paban Kumar to attend the festival and deliver talks in the post-screening events.

“It is some sort of cultural exchange programme,” said Meghachandra Kongbam, president of FSM which is affiliated to the Federation of Film societies of India. “Cultural ties between Japan and NE India will be more strengthened,” he added.

There will also be a symposium on ‘Documentaries from Northeast India / When Margins Becomes the Centre’ to be participated by Pinky Brahma Choudhury, Haobam Paban Kumar and Moji Riba, and it will be moderated by Tarun Bhartiya, besides opening a North East India Audio-Visual Archive under the department of Mass Communication, St. Anthony’s College Shillong.

“Surrounded by Tibet, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh, the Northeast region of India connects to the mainland via a slender stretch of land of just 22 kilometre in width, euphemistically called the “chicken neck,” wrote the organiser of the festival on its official website. “With more than 200 languages and scores of tribes, from hill societies to valley dwelling cultures, Northeast India could be celebrated as a microcosm of diversity.”