North East Film Festival to feature contemporary fare

Pune: The National Film Archives of India, in association with the North-Eastern Students and Cultural Association and Symbiosis’ North-East Outreach arm, will organize the fourth edition of the North East Film Festival from February 1 to 3.

“We hold the festival every year at the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) main theatre on Law College Road. However, the main theatre is pre-occupied so the festival will be held at NFAI’s Kothrud campus,” said Shirish Sahasrabuddhe, director of the Symbiosis Ishanya Cultural and Educational Centre (SICEC), while addressing a news conference on Tuesday.

Some screenings will also be held at the Symbiosis-run ELTIS at Model Colony, the organizers added. Besides the film screening, food stalls featuring cuisine from all eight states and tourism promotion initiatives will be set up at the venue.

The festival will feature a selection of fifteen films in seven languages, including two bilingual films. Most films are from 2018 or 2017, with a few from 2016. “One of the films is in Sylheti-Bengali, which is spoken in parts of Assam, and the other has been made in Assamese-Manipuri,” said one of the organizers. The festival will open with Dominic Sangma’s Garo-language film Ma. Ama and close with Rima Das’ Assamese film Village Rockstars, which was India’s official entry to the Academic Awards.

The NFAI has also invited a number of guests to the film festival, including Sangma, the documentary filmmaker Roopa Barua, and filmmaker Monjul Baruah, who has previously assisted filmmakers like Jahnu Barua. “Roopa Barua made the documentary film Daughters of Polo God, which is based in Manipur, the birthplace of modern Polo. The film is also a part of the selection. Monjul Baruah recently made the film Kaaneen, which has created quite a buzz among people in the city, after he posted on social media that his film will be screened at the festival,” added NFAI director Prakash Magdum.