Far away from the glamour world of big budget Hindi cinema – and consequently the gaze of the usual film goer in the Indian heartland – filmmakers in Northeast India have, over the years, been consistently telling their stories in an artistic and grounded manner. This festival presents some significant voices among a new generation of filmmakers who following in the footsteps of veterans like Aribam Syam Sharma, Jahnu Barua and the late Dr. Bhabendra Nath Saikia, have made a mark at the international and national level. Organised in collaboration with North East Media Forum the festival includes award winning documentaries and features

 

Curator: Utpal Borpujari, filmmaker and film critic

 

Introduction

By Utpal Borpujari

 

Aaba (Grandfather; Arunachal Pradesh)

(22 min; 2017; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Amar Kaushik

 

Recipient of the Special Prize of Generation Kplus International Jury for Best Short Film, 67th Berlin Film Festival; and Best Short Fiction Film, 64th National Film Awards 2016

 

Aaba is about a farmer (Dani Randa), who lives with his wife (Dani Chunya) and granddaughter (Sunku) in Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh. He is diagnosed with lung cancer and has only a few days to live. He decides to dig his own grave, but an unexpected event pushes the story towards a startling climax

 

Followed by

Loktak Lairembee (Lady of the Lake; Manipur)

(71 min; 2016; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Haobam Paban Kumar

 

Multiple award winner including Best Environment Film, 64th National Film Awards 2016; 26th G. Aravindan Puruskaram for the Best Debut Director, 2016; FIPRESCI India, Critics Award, 9th Bengaluru International Film Festival 2017; NETPAC Award (Asian Select), 22nd Kolkata International Film Festival 2016; among others

 

Haobam Paban Kumar’s debut feature film is based on the lives of people living on floating huts in Manipur’s Loktak Lake. Under the guise of protecting the serenity of the lake’s ecosystem, in 2011 the authorities had burnt the huts leaving thousands of fishermen homeless. The film is the story of one such fisherman, Tomba who accidentally comes across a gun hidden in the biomass. Possessing a gun transforms Tomba who becomes very assertive and begins to believe that it is the solution to all his problems. One day, a mysterious lady wanders in from the lake and knocks on his door in the middle of the night