Itanagar: 6th Arunachal Film festival gets underway
The two-day festival will showcase the work of local as well as national filmmakers.
Itanagar
The 6th edition of the Arunachal Film Festival got underway here at the Dree ground on Saturday.
Organised by the Film Federation of Arunachal (FFA) in collaboration with the state’s Information and Public Relations Department, the two-day festival will showcase the work of local as well as national filmmakers, alongside a workshop on cinematography and visual art of cinema by Partho Borgohain.
Besides the screening of the award-winning documentary ‘Daughter of Nepal’ by Surbhi Dewan and feature film ‘Dobara Alvida’ by Shashank S Singh, a panel discussion was held on ‘Film tourism and film policy- strategizing future.’
During the discussion, senior filmmaker from the state, DK Thungon called on young filmmakers to be faithful and consistent towards their craft. He emphasized on creating world class cinema with the stories of the people here, instead of constantly striving for commercially acceptable mainstream movies.
Academician and filmmaker Moji Riba underscored the relevance of government partnership in assisting filmmakers of the state.
While he noted that the only major financial partner for filmmakers of the state was the government, Riba said that filmmakers cannot constantly be grant seekers.
“We need to convince the government to make us partners for the benefit of all parties involved. The government shouldn’t pity us; they should partner with us,” he added.
Mumbai filmmaker Shashank S Singh advised filmmakers of the state to visit film festivals held across the country to get more knowledge and create avenues.
Regarding the language barriers, he said that while Hindi has a large reach in India, regional cinema has its own appeal in the country as well as outside it.
“Don’t let any barrier come in front of you. The uniqueness of a film is its story. Choose your story and shoot,” he said.
Tourism Information Officer, Takom Kena informed that a film policy for the state is in the process of being drafted, for which he said ideas of the Tourism and IPR departments need to be incorporated together.
Regarding film tourism, Kena said the Tourism department’s job is to attract filmmakers from outside. However, with the lack of logistics, the cost is nearly 40 percent higher for a shoot in the state than it is in some nearby country.
He requested the FFA and IPR department to come up with ideas keeping in mind the requirements and interests of local as well as mainstream filmmakers.
An interactive session was also held between the panellists and audience, where queries were addressed.
Later, nine movies were also screened for the short film competition. These include: ‘Dusk’ by Ligang Sallu, ‘The Dilemma’ by Tai Josam, ‘Voiceless’ by Xonie Lingdom, ‘Lost in Traffic’ by Subu Gambo, ‘Vanishing Roots’ by Tage Roots, ‘Abo Tani’ by Kombong Darang, ‘Mute’ by Mankap Nokwoham, ‘NH 415’ by Namabm Sonii and ‘Arunachal Election Time’ by Nyishi Boy Raw.
‘Oha…e’, a feature film by Subu Gambo was also showcased. The film presented a comical take on the misadventures of an Apatni youth in the 70s.
In the evening session, Tanom Jerang’s documentary ‘Blowin’ in the wind’, and feature films ‘Jeevan ek Sanghasrsh’ by Topan Rimo and ‘NEFA 1953’ by Tapen natam were also showcased.
The workshop is scheduled to be held on Sunday, followed by a screening of a series of documentary and feature films.
