Sinlung /
22 April 2010

Distant Rumblings From Nagaland

National award winners Distant Rumblings & Antaheen part of film fest

A poster of Antaheen

Kohima, Apr 22 : The Indian Panorama Film Festival 2010 will begin here from Friday. The three-day event is being jointly organized by the Nagaland government and the Directorate of Film Festivals, Union ministry of information and broadcasting.

Of the 14 films to be screened, four are from the Northeast, including three from Nagaland.

Apart from Ilisa Amagi Mahao which is a Manipuri film directed by Ningthouja Lancha, the three other films of the region — My Brother Jack, directed by Kivini Shohe, World War II as I Remember directed by Vikeyielienuo Chielie and Metevino Sakhrie and Distant Rumblings by Baniprakash Das — are from Nagaland.

Das said Distant Rumblings, a documentary, includes scenes of real incidents of World War II in Kohima and Manipur.

“It all happened when we (I and Rongsenkala, the producer) saw a wreckage hanging from a tree at Noklak. We were told that it was a World War II wreckage.”

Thus began a research work and it took them three years to make the documentary of 22 minutes and 22 seconds. During the course of the research, they met many war veterans and their relatives who shared with them the agony they had faced during the war.

Distant Rumblings bagged the National Award for the best investigative film and also the Karim Nagar Jurist Special Mention Award. The film was screened at the prestigious Mumbai International Film Festival, Kerela International Film Festival, Germany, Paris and the Indian Panorama Film Festival Goa. The film will be screened on Friday at the State Academy Hall, Kohima, after the inaugural function at 3:30pm.

Other films to be screened are Vithal, a Marathi film, The First Leap, an English film directed by Haobam Pawan Kumar, Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye (Hindi), Land Gold Women (English and Urdu), Kutty Srank, Malayalam, Ekti Kaktaliya Golpo (Bengali), The Prince and the Crown of Stone (English), Antaheen (Bengali) and Gabhricha Paus (Marathi).

These films will depict the region’s society and economy.

Bhupendra Kainthola, director, Indian Panorama, the Directorate of Film Festivals, said the aim of the film festival here was to provide the Naga people the opportunity of watching good movies.

“This is going to be a very exciting for the people of Kohima,” Kainthola said.

A. Lassa, the additional director general of field publicity, government of India, said each film was unique and she was all praise for the team of Distant Rumblings .

She said the objective of the film festival is to forge a bond between the Northeast and the rest of the country.

“Cinemas create an emotional integration too,” she said, adding the films would have socio-economic themes. “The door of opportunity is opened for the Naga people,” she said.

“I am sure there will be some people to make films both documentary and feature films after this festival,” Kainthola said, adding the Indian Panorama had given ample opportunities to the filmmakers and would continue to encourage the people.

Every year there would be an Indian Panorama Film Festival in the Northeast, he said.

At the inaugural programme, R. Tohanba, parliamentary secretary for information and public relations, economic and statistics, will be present to watch Distant Rumblings and Dev D, a Hindi film.

[ via The Telegraph India]

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