Altaf Mazid is a critic turned filmmaker. He has a number of write-ups and essays on cinema, mainly on the cinemas of Assam. As a member of FIPRESCI (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique), he has occupied a chair of film critic jury to IFFI (1992), IDFA Amsterdam (1997), YIDFF Japan (2001), MIFF Moscow (2004), Cannes (2006) and Dubai (2012). Also he was a jury to BIFFES Bangalore (2014) and IDSFF Kerala (2015) besides being invited to Fajr Film Festival of Tehran as guest critic in 1997. He was a member of selection committee of Indian Panorama (non-fiction) of IFFI (1999), and Assam State Film Awards 2005 (feature).
He is the winner of the best director prizes for Jibon (Life, 1998) in the Seventh Pyongyang Film Festival of Non-Aligned & Developing Countries 2000. In 2008 National Film Awards, he won two awards in two diverse categories – golden lotus for best film critic (shared with R. K. Bidur Singh) and silver lotus for best anthropological /ethnographic Film for Boliya pitaier sohoki sootal (A duet with the river god). His Rahashyar Bitchaku (Seven hundred zero zero seven) has won him a golden conch in MIFF Mumbai in 2014
In 2004, he reconstructed the first Assamese film Joymoti (Joymoti, 1935) from found footage that was premiered internationally in the Bollywood and Beyond film festival of Stuttgart in 2006 with subsequent screenings in Asiaticafilmmediale of Rome (2006), Munich Film festival (2007), Osian Delhi (2008) and IFFI Goa (2014). Currently he is trying to promote another forgotten film, Ganga Silonir Pakhi (Wings of the tern, 1975), a piece of cinematic art.
Also his co-produced film, Chitra Sutram (The Image Threads, directed by Vipin Vijay) has won silver lotus for best sound design by Subhadeep Sengupta in National Film Awards 2011. This film happened to be the only Indian film selected for Tiger Awards of Rotterdam Film Festival 2011 in the film history of the country.
Filmography:
1. Byoktigata Aru Goponio (Personal and confidential, experimental fiction, 1992)
2. Jibon (Life, experimental fiction, 1998)
3. Lakhtokiat Golam (Closed-door-and-stuff-inside-
4. Our Common Future (Documentary, 2002)
5. The Joy of Giving (Documentary, 2004)
6. Las Vegasat (In Las Vegas, experimental fiction, 2004)
7. Bhal Khabar (Good news, experimental documentary, 2005)
8. Crazy on the rocks (Documentary 2007)
9. Kunir kutil dosha (The elbow in exile, experimental documentary, 2008)
10. Boliya pitaier sohoki sootal (A duet with the river god, documentary, 2008)
11. Chitra Sutram (The Image Threads, co-producer of 35 mm fiction, direction Vipin Vijay, 2010)
12. Rahashyar Bitchaku (Seven hundred zero zero seven) experimental documentary, 2014
Film links:
1. Jibon (Life) 56 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
2. Lakhtokiat Golam (Closed-door-and-stuff-inside-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
3. Bhal Khabar (Good News) 17 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
4. Las Vegasat (In Las Vegas) 12 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
5. Boliya Pitaier Sohoki Sootal (A duet with the river god), 125 min -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
6. Rahashyar Bitchaku (Seven hundred zero zero seven), 30 min
https://vimeo.com/90391980
7. Kunir Kutil Dasha (The Elbow in Exile) 12 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
