New Delhi: A three-day festival showcasing the best of contemporary cinema from the northeast will be held in the national capital from August 22.
Named ‘Fragrances from the North East’, the festival is being organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting at the Siri Fort Auditorium complex here.
The festival will open with the Mapuia Chawngthu-directed Mizo film ‘Khawnlung Run’ (The Raid of Khawnlung), which was also the opening movie of the ‘Focus on NE Cinema’ Section at the 44th International Film Festival of India in Goa last year.
Pradip Kurbah’s ‘RI: Homeland of Uncertainty’, which won the National Award this year for Best Khasi film, will be the closing movie of the festival, curated by critic Utpal Borpujari.
Bollywood singer Angaraag Papon Mahanta will perform with his East India Company band on the opening day while internationally-acclaimed Naga pianist Nise Meruno and choir group Nagaland Singing Ambassadors will take the stage on the closing day.
The other movies to be screened at the festival are ‘Yarwng’ (a Kokborok film directed by Joseph Pulinthanath which opened the Indian Panorama in IFFI 2008), ‘Phijigee Mani’ (directed by Oinam Gautam Singh and won the National Award for Best Manipuri Film), ‘Sonam’ (In Monpa dialect of Arunachal Pradesh and directed by Ahsan Muzid), Jahnu Barua’s ‘Ajeyo’ (Assamese which won the National Award this year for Best Assamese Film), Nagamese films ‘Going the Distance’ (Tiainla Jamir) and ‘Bamboo Shoots’ (Steven Ao) and Gorkhali film ‘Kathaa’ (Prashant Rasaily).
There will be a quiz session after the screening of each film. The festival will be attended among others by veteran filmmakers from the region Barua and Abdul Majid (who made the classic ‘Chameli Memsaab’), actors Adil Hussain, Seema Biswas and this year’s national award winner for best actress Geetanjali Thapa from Sikkim.
There will also be exhibition-cum-sale counters of traditional handicrafts and artifacts from northeast organised by the Ministry of Culture in the auditorium’s main foyer and a painting exhibition organised by Lalit Kala Akademi in the back foyer besides special food stalls representing cuisines from all the eight states of the region. (PTI)