North East Film festival to kick start on August 22 in Delhi
Source: The Sangai Express / Agencies
New Delhi, August 20 2014:
'Fragrances from the North East', a three-day North East film festival will begin on Friday.
The festival will be inaugurated by Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting.
Organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals (Ministry of Information & Broadcasting), the festival will be attended by actors and directors from the region, including Jahnu Barua, Seema Biswas, Adil Hussain, Geetanjali Thapa, Abdul Majid, Mapuia Chongthu, Pradip Kurbah, Merlvin Mukhim, Oinam Gautam Singh, Tonthoi, Bonny Sharma, Meena Debbarma, Tashi Lhamu, Tiainla Jamir, Steven Ao, Prashant Rasaily and others.
Films to be screened include 'Khawnlung Run' (Mizoram); 'Ri' (Meghalaya), 'Ajeyo' (Assam), 'Phijigee Mani' (Manipur), 'Yarwng' (Tripura), 'Kathaa' (Sikkim), 'Sonam' (Arunachal Pradesh), and 'Going the Distance' and 'Bamboo Shoots' (Nagaland) .
Simultaneously, the Ministry of Culture will organize an exhibition of handicraft from all NE States.
Meanwhile, Lalit Kala Akademi will organize an exhibition of paintings.
Moreover, food stalls will be one the attractions of the festival.
It may be mentioned that this is the first North East film festival to be held in Delhi after 'North-East Focus' section was introduced in the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in Goa last year.
The move by the Information Ministry comes as a response to the 'Safety and Security of NE People in Metro cities' particularly in Delhi and NCR in the aftermath of a series of incidents and uproar by the North East youths.
The media and Information & Broadcasting Department came under heavy criticism for not giving attention to the region, and at the most a discriminatory, skewed and irresponsible coverage of information related to the region.
Screening of films is part of an initiative to bridge the wide gap of information and awareness about people from the north east region.