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Limawati Ao inaugurating the logo of the Nagaland Film Association during a press conference held at East Gate Hotel in Kohima on Tuesday, Oct. 15.[/caption]
The second Film Festival of Nagaland, organised by the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) in collaboration with Film Association of Nagaland (Fan), will be held at Capital Convention Centre in Kohima on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The first Film Festival of Nagaland organised by Dreamz Unlimited and sponsored by DIPR was held in the year 2017.
Fan is affiliated to the Federation of Film Societies of India.
During a press conference held at East gate hotel in Kohima on Oct. 15, Keviri Shohe, the president of Fan announced that there will be competition and non-competition category of films.
The categories for competition section will be short fiction and short documentary under 10 minutes each while commenting that the north-eastern movies are doing well today.
Limawati Ao, Director of DIPR, said that this year’s festival will showcase films from Northeast. He said besides screening of films, there will also be discussions.
Film festival is an opportunity for the Nagas to interact with people from outside the state and learn from them and also show them what Nagas have while encouraging the people to work together and prove others that Nagas have the talent and resources.
‘Things in the government work a little slow but with the help of everyone especially with films association of India, I hope we can achieve something,’ he commented.
Tokishe Sema, Additional Director of DIPR said that, the main idea is to promote the films of the state. “Film is the best form of advertisement to the whole world because people will get to know us, and therefore it is the best platform” and “We have so many talents in our state and the departments will work to encourage the filmmakers,” he stated.
He further stated that job opportunities will also come along with film productions because professions like directors, producers, camera man, writers, screenwriters requires lots of man-power.
Yapangnaro Longkumer, Festival Director Fan, said that it was very encouraging to get good responses from filmmakers across the north-eastern states where they received 28 films from the competition category and 28 films from non-competition category though few were disqualified. She also stated that it was heartening to receive so many films from our own young Naga filmmakers, though some of them did not make it to the competition. She mentioned that 17 films are selected from all over the NE states for screening at the festival.
The jurists for the films will be from other states, she said. If only people come to watch the films then it would be a success, she believed.
It was also informed that there are 40 registered members with Fan and to enhance the technical and professional skills, they will be holding screening of films, seminars, workshops and other forms of interaction.
It was also mentioned that Nicholas Khargonger, director of Bollywood film “Axone” will also be attending the event and will taking master classes about the process of film making.
The prominent films which will be screened during the festival includes Village Rockstars 2017, an Indian Kamrupi Assamese language coming-of-age film written, edited, co-produced and directed by Rima Das, a self taught filmmaker. The film won awards in three other categories: Best child artist, best location sound recordist and best editing, and the film was also selected as India’s official entry to the 91st Academy Awards.
Dominic Sangma’s Ma Ama, a Garo film from Meghalaya which has won many awards at national and international level will also be screened and the movie centres on an elderly man who feels the time has come to settle his earthly affairs and his hope to be re united with his wife afterlife. It was the only Indian Film selected for the Mumbai Film Festival’s international competition.
Aamis, an Assamese film directed by Bhaskar Hazarika, will be featured as the opening film for the 2nd Nagaland Film Festival. The film was premiered in Tribeca Film Festival 2019 New York, USA.
(Our Correspondent)