By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Kelvin Cinema, a three-day film festival organised by Shankar Lall Goenka, the doyen of cinema in the North East and Jeevan Ram Mungi Devi Goenka Public Charitable Trust started at U Soso Tham auditorium on Thursday.
The inaugural film was the much-acclaimed MAAMA directed by Dominic Sangma, which was awarded at the 66th National Film Award as the best Garo movie.
Internationally acclaimed film maker Rima Das, who got national award in the year 2018 for her film Bulbul Can Sing, noted filmmakers, Manju Bora and Bobby Sharma Baruah – all hailing from Assam – explained the need to present the stories of the region to a larger audience.
Speaking to reporters, Rima Das said there is a revival of North East cinema and urged the young film makers to use the opportunity.
“With the advancement of technology, anyone can make a film even with a mobile phone or a digital camera but a relevant story should be told”, said Das, who had used a single digital camera for her film Village Rock stars which was nominated for the Oscar in 2018.
Dominic said that compared to the past, there are a lot of opportunities for the film makers from the North East.
Dominic, however, rued lack of financial support for the local filmmakers as he has to depend on foreign film producers for his projects.
Manju Bora and Bobby Sharma said that though there are difficulties in film making in the North East in terms of financial and technical support, there are stories from the North East which have to be told by all means, and for this, they are ready to make sacrifice.