Arunachal Pradesh invites filmmakers from Nagaland to attend and take part in the Northeast film festival
Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 21
This February, creators of motion pictures from the North East region will be converging at the high grounds of Arunachal Pradesh to salute talents and nurture passion in filmmaking.
In a maiden initiative, Arunachal Pradesh is hosting a regional film festival from February 17-20 at its capital Itanagar to promote an understanding and appreciation of the diversity of cinema in the North East region.
‘Film, Northeast 2016,’ which is anticipated become a biennial event, and organized in partnership with the Film Federation of Arunachal (FFA) seeks to create a space where filmmakers from the 8 NE states can meet and engage with each other their stories, films, and art.
“North East is unparalleled when it comes to culture, compassion and creativity. In this backdrop, we decided to create a platform to showcase the films of NE, create an interaction point and share experiences,” Sonam Chombay, secretary Information public Relation (IPR), Arunachal Pradesh said at a press conference held at Hotel Lake Shilloi, Dimapur on Thursday.
Most importantly, Chombay hoped that the festival will be the beginning of generating an accord among filmmakers of the region to come together and make films on the issues of Northeast as a whole.
Arunachal Pradesh IPR director, CM Longphong and festival director, Moji Riba was also present during the present conference. The film festival will be a precursor to the 30 years of Statehood celebration of Arunachal Pradesh.
The vision of the film festival, according to the organizers, is to provide space for film makers of the region to interact and engage, create a network (both virtual and real) to share their work and concerns, build capacity and nurture talent of the art of cinema in the region.
“It is very rare that filmmakers here from the region meet in our own home ground. We meet either in Delhi or Mumbai during film festivals organized by the outside actors,” Moji Riba said.
He expressed that the upcoming film festival will create an opportunity not only share films of the region but also help in strengthening the emotional link between the NE states.
The Arunachal Pradesh government has invited film and documentary makers from Nagaland to attend and take part in the festival and also showcase their productions.
The film festival will have a diversity of segments. In competition through official nomination, there is Chiaroscuro-where a feature film from each State would be nominated by IPR/Art and Culture departments. Films shot after January 1, 2013 is eligible to apply and the last date of submission is February 5, 2016.
First Cut: debut films of directors form the region-the IPR and Arts and Culture departments of east State will nominate 2 films for this segment.
In open competition, there is Clapperboard which is films by young filmmakers (under 5 minutes) and Our Stories: documentary films on contemporary issues facing the region (20-30 minutes). The entries can be sent directly to the secretariat of Film, Northeast 2016. Last date for submission of entries is January 31.
There will be cash awards running in lakhs of rupees and trophies for the winners of the competition segments.
Besides, there will be non competitive events such as children film festival, shorts, documentaries and features from Arunachal, retrospective of the films of master filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma, discussion on the issue of northeast cinema, scripting workshop, sound design workshop etc.
With invitation from the Arunachal Pradesh government, Nise Meruno and the Zowie Madrigals will also be performing at the festival. “I am excited and proud that the Northeast finally has a major film festival…this is a good start,” said Meruno who also attended the press conference.
The film festival will be held at Annex Lawns, IG Park. Those interested can get more details from their website: www.film-northeast.in.
