Film on Assam village chosen for UK archive

An Assamese documentary film has been selected to be archived at the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) of Great Britain and Ireland, an official said here Sunday.

"Mayong: Myth/Reality", directed by movie critic-turned-filmmaker Utpal Borpujari and produced by Jayanta Goswami, will be archived by RAI so that researchers and academicians of cultural ethnography studies can access the documentary.

"We will take the film to Edinburgh and it will be available in the video library and for any future visitors at the RAI for consultation," said Susanne Hammacher, film officer with the RAI.

The 53-minute documentary is about a small cluster of villages in Assam's Morigaon district and the age-old practices and legends associated with black magic in the area. It highlights ancient manuscripts, books and tantric images.

The film was recently screened at the 5th Cine ASA Guwahati International Film Festival and the India International Centre, New Delhi.

It has also been selected for the Long Documentary (Non-Competitive) Section of the 6th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) to be held in Thiruvananthapuram in June and the Gandhinagar International Film Festival to be held in the Gujarat capital in September.

RAI's ethnographic film library is one of the world's largest and most important such archives.

RAI is the world's longest-established scholarly association dedicated to anthropology and is linked to the Anthropology Library of the British Museum in London.