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

 

An exhibition of black and white photographs by Bivas Bhattacharjee from Kolkata

 

Inauguration by Shri Amit Mehra, eminent photographer and Ms Ina Puri, art curator on Thursday, 17^th August 2017 at 18:30

 

Speaker: Shri U.K. Sinha, former Chairman Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)

Chair: Shri Dhirendra Swarup, former Finance Secretary and former Chairman, PFRDA

 

 

A Bharatanatyam presentation by Dakshina Vaidyanathan Bhagel; Nehha Bhatnagar; Gayatri Deka; Akanksha Rana; Debasmita Thakur; Ankita Kaushik; Amrit Sinha; and Shamshur Rehman from Delhi, senior disciples of Guru Smt Saroja Vaidyanathan

 

 

(Collaboration: Ganesa Natyalaya)

 

THURSDAY 17

 

DISCUSSION ? CONFERENCE ROOM II AT 16:00 

 

A series of discussions on post-CivilWar Spain and post dictatorship in Latin America dealing with the  burden of memory and general mass of people as the main actors/sufferers during the crisis and survivors of the same who have to carry this burden in their mind for a long period of time. In the course of the series texts (fiction/ nonfiction), films paintings and other art production will be discussed.

 

Series Coordinator: Professor Vibha Maurya who will give an introduction

 

Speakers: Dr. Margit Koves, Professor of Hungarian Studies, University of Delhi; Dr. Tarun Saint, English Department, Hindu College; and Durba Banerji, Research Scholar, Hispanic Studies, University of Delhi

 

(Collaboration: Department of Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Delhi)

 

PERFORMANCE ? C.D. DESHMUKH AUDITORIUM AT 19:00

 

In Kathak and Brij-Raas Style

Dance Choreography by Uma Sharma

Music Direction: Pt. Jwala Prasad

Accompanists: Madho Prasad (gayan); Vinay Prasanna (flute); Mubarak Khan (tabla); Khalid Mustafa (sitar); and Yograj Panwar (padhant)

 

Compere: Sadhna Shrivastav

Speaker: Ms Sunita Narain, Director-General, Centre for Science and Environment

 

16th BCF annual lecture organised in collaboration with the Business and Community Foundation

 

 

By Paromita Mukherji, disciple of Pt. V.G. Jog

 

Followed by

Hindustani Vocal Recital

By Milind Chittal, disciple of Firoz Dastoor, Kirana Gharana

 

 

India at a Crossroads. The Future of our Democracy

Speaker: Shri Baijayant “Jay” Panda, M.P.

 

(Collaboration: Prem Bhatia Memorial Society)

 

 

 

An exhibition of photographs and documents depicting India’s freedom struggle under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership and his vision of free India from the collection of the National Gandhi Museum. Beginning with Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa in 1915 and the first satyagraha in Champaran in 1917, the Ahmedabad Mill workers’ strike, the Non-Co-operation movement, Bardoli satyagraha, Dandi March, Quit India movement and Gandhi’s last days in Bihar and Noakhali. It will also depict the Mahatma’s dream of free India – removal of poverty, communal harmony, removal of untouchability, equality of women, a new system of education, etc. The exhibition will also include replicas of Gandhi’s ashrams

Curated by Dr. Aparna Basu, Chairperson, National Gandhi Museum

 

Inauguration by Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, Chairperson, IIC-International Research Division on 10 August 2017 at 17:00 followed by Gandhi ji’s Favourite Bhajans presented by school children

 

(Collaboration: National Gandhi Museum)