IFFI to highlight NE cinema for first time

The International Film Festival of India this year will for the first time highlight cinema from the northeastern states.
There will be a special northeast package at 44th IFFI in Panaji, which will run from November 20-30, named "Focus: North East".
The section will be inaugurated on November 22 with a special opening ceremony. There will also be a special closing ceremony on November 27, sources in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said.
A total of 23 films from the northeast in the section will be screened, including "Ek Pal" as a special homage to its producer Hemendra Prasad Barooah.

The opening movie of the section will be "Khawnlung Run", the first-ever Mizo film to be screened in any international festival. It is directed by Mapuia Chawngthu.
The opening ceremony guests include Bolywwod actors from Assam Seema Biswas and Adil Hussain and there will be a special performance by Naga folk fusion band Purple Fusion.

The northeast section has been curated by National Award-winning film critic Utpal Borpujari, who will also moderate a panel discussion on the region's cinema.
Among the films to be srcreened is "Rupkonwar Jyotiprasad Aru Joymoti" (dir late Bhupen Hazarika), a documentary on the making of "Joymoti", the first film in the North East made in 1935 by Jyotiprasad Agarwalla. The documentary contains the only surviving portions of "Joymoti".

Another iconic film to be screened is "Matamgi Manipur" (dir: Deb Kumar Bose), the first movie in Manipuri language made in 1972. Haobam Paban Kumar's documentary "The First Leap", on how "Matamgi Manipur" was made, on the memory of its actors as they watch the film after 30 years of its making, will also be shown.
The closing film of NE Section will be Arup Manna-directed Assamese film "Aideu", a biopic on "Joymoti" heroine Aideu Handique.
In the musical section on Indian cinema, Bhupen Hazarika's "Chameli Memsab", which had won the National Award for Best Music in 1975, will be screened.

These are in addition to Manju Borah's Mising language feature film "Ko:Yad" and documentaries "Manipuri Pony" by Aribam Syam Sharma, "Resonance of Mother's Melody" by Dip Bhuyan and "By Lane No 2" by Utpal Datta, which are part of the Indian Panorama section.