Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival, a one-of-a-kind event aimed at showcasing Northeastern cinema, hosted their fourth edition this week — on a scale bigger than before, following the massive success of the first three editions held in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
In the keynote address of the festival, which was a Tattva Communications initiative, Tanushree Hazarika, festival director, said, “This year, globally recognised film personalities such as Prakash Jha, director of hard hitting social dramas like Gangaajal, Rajneeti, Aarakshan and Satyagraha and Imtiaz Ali, director of highly acclaimed movies like Jab We Met, Rockstar and Highway will come to attend the three day festival. Apart from them, the festival will witness the presence of renowned production designer Vandana Kataria, known for her work in Shanghai and Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, award winning sound designer Amrit Pritam who has worked in Black, Ghajini and Slumdog Millionaire and screenwriter Ritesh Shah who has penned classics like Kahaani and Airlift.”
Ranjan Mahapatra, director of Information and Public Relations, Northeastern Council stated that this festival was a great opportunity for budding filmmakers. “This is a great opportunity for young filmmakers from the region as they get the chance to meet renowned directors and learn from them.”
The three day festival had screenings of regional movies, audience interaction sessions, workshops and panel discussions on topics related to films and award ceremony. A short film festival was also organised among the new age filmmakers from all the eight states of the northeast and for films based on northeast. Over hundred short films were received from all across the region and out of all the entries, the top 15 were screened at the film festival and the top three winners were awarded prizes over Rs 2.5 lakhs along with the scope to work with a renowned production house of national repute. Speaking to the media, Ashok Purohit, vice president of Star Cement said that this was a one of a kind film festival and that Star Cement was proud to have been associated with it.
The three-day festival included screenings of regional movies, audience interaction sessions, workshops and panel discussions on topics related to films and an award ceremony. A short film festival was also organised highlight new age filmmakers from all the eight states of the Northeast.
Pallavi Barua, member of the organizing committee said, “Last time, we had shortlisted 10 movies but this time, the quality of the films are so good that we increased the number to 15. In fact, production wise most of the movies are really first rate.”
Many of the recent award winning movies from the northeast like Kima’s Lode Beyond the Class (Mizoram), The Head Hunter (Arunachal Pradesh), Tezpur 1962(Assam), Eibusu Yaohanbiyu (Manipur) and 1962 My Country Land were screened during the festival.
The event was being sponsored by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, North Eastern Council, DoNER, Government of India.
It may be mentioned that yesteryear renowned Assamese actor Jnanada Kakati was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement award.
Acclaimed director Imtiaz Ali in his video message said “I am really excited to come to Guwahati for the first time to attend the Brahmaputra Valley film festival and meet film makers from the region and interact with them.” On the other hand Prakash Jha said “watching films from different parts of the northeast is like knowing our own people, our own art and culture. I am sure that Brahmaputra Valley film festival will go on to become one of the most important film festivals in the country.”