5 NE documentaries selected for MIFF

Five documentary films made by North-Eastern directors have been selected for the Indian Competitive Section of the highly-prestigious Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) to be held from February 3 to 9 next year. These films are – Children of the River: The Xihus of Assam, directed by filmmaker Maulee Senapati, Freedom at The Edge, directed by Aneisha Sharma, The World of Montu by Ashim Dutta, Distant Rumblings by Bani Prakash Das, all from Assam, and The Story of the Eastern Protectors by Ronel Haobam from Manipur. The 60-year-old MIFF, organised every two years by the Film Division, Government of India, is considered one of the most prominent festivals for short, documentary and animation films in Asia. Maulee’s Children of the River: The Xihus of Assam, has been produced and scripted by noted Assamese journalist and writer Sanjoy Hazarika under the banner of Mimesha Productions.

Shot on locations along the Brahmaputra river, the film looks at how humans and dolphins have co-existed and how this relationship is breaking down in the face of economic pressure and poverty. For the first time in the region, it has captured on camera the secret process used by dolphin hunters to catch them. The film was recently screened in Guwahati and widely appreciated. It was also screened at the India International Centre, New Delhi on last month and received rave reviews.

Freedom at the Edge, produced, scripted and directed by Aneisha Sharma, is the tragic human story of Machang Lalung, a young man from the Nelie area of central Assam, who had languished in the Tezpur Mental Hospital as an under trial prisoner for long 54 years without any trial since the year 1951.

Ashim Dutta, who directs The World of Montu, hails from Dhemaji.

The Indian Competitive Section will also feature New Delhi-based filmmaker Kobita Joshi’s internationally-acclaimed Tales from the Margins, a documentary about the unprecedented protest by the women activists of Manipur when they disrobed outside the paramilitary headquarters to protest the custodial killing of a young woman and the epic fast-to-death by Irom Sharmila since November 2000 demanding repeal of AFSPA.

This year’s MIFF also has a North-East connection in the form of Utpal Borpujari, the National Award-winning New Delhi-based Assamese journalist being chosen to be a member of the Critics Jury

A documentary on the endangered river dolphins of Assam and the on-going efforts to save them has been selected for the Indian competitive section of Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2008.

‘Children of the River: The Xihus of Assam’, is a documentary film directed by filmmaker Maulee Senapati, and produced and scripted by the noted journalist and writer, Sanjoy Hazarika under the banner of Mimesha Productions.

The MIFF is the most prestigious platform for short and documentary films in the country. Next year’s chapter of the festival will begin on Feb 3.

“Shot on various locations along the Brahmaputra River in Assam, the film deals with how humans and dolphins have co-existed for ages and how this relationship is breaking down in the face of economic pressure and poverty,” the producer of the film, Hazarika said.

‘Children of the River’ captures on camera for the first time in the region to show the secret method used by dolphin hunters to catch fish. The oil extracted from river dolphin is believed to attract fish when sprinkled on the river water.

The river dolphins are found in the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra and their tributaries. Its scientific name is Platanista Gangetica. It is commonly known as “Susu” in Ganges and “Xihu” in Brahmaputra. They are aquatic mammals.

The other river dolphins are the Lipotes Vexillifer of Yangtse river in China, Platanista minor of Indus river of Pakistan, Inia geoffrensis of Amazon river of South America.

River dolphins were found in large numbers in Ganges and Brahmaputra river systems till a few years. But now their number has come down considerably due to various human activities like fishing (gillnetting), poaching, damming (Farakka barrage) in Ganges and other dams, sand mining (in Kulsi river of Assam) and deforestation.

The river dolphins are included in the schedule 1 of Indian Wildlife Act 1972. According to this Act, if any one is found killing them or possessing any part of them can be imprisoned for 1-6 years and fined not less than Rs 6000.