The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2019, to be held from October 10-17 in Yamagata, Japan, and will feature 16 documentaries from Northeast India under a special section – Rustle of Spring, Whiff of Gunpower: Documentaries from Northeast India.
The programme has been set by the festival authority in collaboration with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation as a part of their ongoing initiative entitled: Preserving and Sharing the Histories and Memories of Northeast India.
The Sasakawa Peace Foundation has invited filmmakers Aribam Syam Sharma and Haobam Paban Kumar from Manipur to attend the festival and deliver talks in the post-screening events.
Five Films from Manipur will be presented in the festival – Aribam Syam Sharma’s Orchids of Manipur, Yelhou Jagoi: The Dances of Lai Haraoba, The Monpas of Arunachal Pradesh; Haobam Paban Kumar’s Phum-Shang and Oinam Doren’s Songs of Mashangva.
Others films include Pinky Brahma Choudhury’s An Autumn Fable, Mukul Haloi’s Tales from Our Childhood, Gautam Bora’s Old Man River, Subasri Krishnan’s What the Fields Remember, Altaf Mazid’s The Broken Song, Sanjay Kak’s In the Forest Hangs a Bridge, Prem Vaida’s New Rhythms in Nagaland, Nepoleon Thanga’s MNF: The Mizo Uprising, Moji Riba’s Prayers for New Gods, Tarun Bhartiya’s When the Hens Crow and Not Allowed.
There will be a symposium on ‘Documentaries from Northeast India / When Margins Becomes the Centre’ to be participated by Pinky Brahma Choudhury, Haobam Paban Kumar and Moji Riba and moderated by Tarun Bhartiya, besides opening a Northeast India Audio-Visual Archive under the Department of Mass Communication, St. Anthony’s College Shillong.
“With more than 200 languages and scores of tribes, from hill societies to valley dwelling cultures, Northeast India could be celebrated as a microcosm of diversity. This program presents the tension and dialogue between the post-colonial Indian state’s efforts to represent the region and local filmmakers who seize back the narrative of their experiences,” a festival communication said.
