Five Documentaries of Assam in German Festival: One Sileti Colloquial Film Finds International Audience

The present state of affairs of Assam film industry might be suffering from acute drought of feature film but the documentary sphere is not. As many as five documentaries of the state are making road to the 5th edition of “Bollywood and Beyond”. It’s a festival of Indian Film Festival held annually in Stuttgart city of Germany and this time being held from 16 to 20 July.

The films are ‘Children of the River: The Xihus of Assam’ (direction: Mauleenath Senapati), ‘Distant Rumblings’ (Bani Prakash Das), ‘The Brew of Eastern Clouds’ (Tinat Atifa Masood), ‘Sand Castle’ (Pramod Das), and ‘Kunir Kutil Dosha – The elbow in exile’ (Altaf Mazid). Wiebke A.C. Reiss, the Programme Director of the festival attended the MIFF 2008 (Mumbai International Film festival of Short, Documentary and Animation films) and picked up two films from the competition section – ‘The Xihus of Assam’ and ‘Distant Rumblings’. ‘The Brew of Eastern Clouds’ and ‘Sand Castle’ were screened in the Northeast package of film of the festival curated by film critic Chandan Sarma. The contents of the films in the festival catalogue caught her attention but Wiebke could preview them after contacting the concerned directors. The production format of four out of the five selected is video except ‘Sand castle’ by Promod Das, which is in 16 mm shot by Marinal Kanti Das.

It is to be noted that it was the ‘Bollywood and Beyond’ andWiebke A.C. Reiss who discovered the artistic uniqueness in Jyotiprasad Agarwalla’s ‘Joymoti’ and invited the film for international premier in their 2006 edition.
Website of the festival: http://www.filmbuerobw.de
Film Details:
1. Children of the River: The Xihus of Assam, 29 min., Dir: Mauleenath Senapati
Synopsis: The 3000 kilometre-long river Brahmaputra is the homeland of the‚ Xihus’, a endangered species of dolphins. Due to increasing pollution that is destroying the natural wildlife, the dolphins, have to fight for their survival.

2. The Brew of Eastern Clouds: 28 min., Betacam-SP, Dir: Tinat Atifa Masood, English
Synopsis: In 1838 the Englishman Charles Alexander Bruce brought black tea from Assam to London for the first time – until then tea was a luxury good for the upper-class. Bruce observed how the people from Singpho in Assam made their tea from wild plants and developed a commercial method for the production. The tea gave Assam its identity and this identity was expanded recently as the tea tourism developed.

3. Distant Rumblings: 22 min., Betacam-SP, Dir: Bani Prakash Das, English
Synopsis: In 1942 the Japanese armed forces began their offence against India and the Northeast of the country became the Indo-Burma Front. Over 60 years after the war's end the director Bani Prakash Das visited the northwestern regions of Nagaland and Manipur, in which one can still find the physical and psychological wounds of the war.

4. Sand Castle: Dir: Promod Das, 21 min, 16 mm, English
Synopsis: In the Indian region Assam, the Mians live on sandbanks. The tribe emigrated from Bangladesh to India in the 19th century. They live away from civilization, without electricity, cars or schools and the most of them live of farming and fishing. The Brahmaputra and his banks are their home, even though the Monsoon leaves a track of destruction in their villages, the Mians indefatigable look for new places to live.

5. Kunir Kutil Dosha (The elbow in exile): 12 min., Betacam SP, Dir: Altaf Mazid, Sileti with English subtitles
Synopsis: Descriptions of the human body have always had a high value in poetry and prose, even today in times of the internet. From the tip of the hair to the toes every part of the body, especially the female one, got treated in poems. Just one part of the human being is ignored till now: the elbow. Kunir Kutil Dosha is based on an article by noted novelist Roma Bezbarua. Bibhu Ranjan Choudhury has done the Sileti translation of the film text. He has also lent his voice for background narration. The English translation of the sub-titles is by Saurav Kumar Chaliha. Local screening of the film was held in Adda’s 2007 film festival of 31st October and now Bollywood and Beyond is going to open it for the international audience.
For Details Enquiry: Chandan Sarma (94351-47333) / Promod Das (94350-24956) / Moulee Senapati (94350-17554) / Tinat Atifa Masood (98640-64068) / Bani Prakash Das (99541-50850)