International Film Festival begins in Guwahati

After a film festival on terrorism, organized by Gauhati Cine Club,

the prime city of Northeast India has hosted another important

international film festival. Organized by Cine Arts Society, Assam

(CineASA) for the second consecutive year, the weeklong Guwahati

festival is starting after the marry making Bhogali Bihu festival of

Assam.
The Second CineASA Guwahati International Film Festival 2010 is

scheduled to be inaugurated by Assam Governor JB Patnaik on January

18, where the Sri Lankan film 'Akasha Kusum' to be screened as the

inaugural movie. The director of the film, an eminent Sri Lankan

Prasanna Vithange will be present in the function as the guest of

honour.
The other movies made by Vithange are included for screening in the

Jewel of Asia section, informed Bitopan Barbora, on behalf of the

organizing committee in a recent press at Gwahati Press Club.

Nearly 40 film woks including the movies by Pedro Almodover, Christian

Mungio, Jean Luc Godard, Francois Troufaut, Mahsin Makhmalbaf,

Kiarostemi, Kim Ki Duk etc have been selected for screening in the

festival. It will also have a retrospective section comprising the

films by Pedro Almodovar, a tribute section for film works by Kim Ki

Duk and a focus section for the movies by Mahsin Makhmalbaf, Samira

Makhmalbaf, Mazid Mazidi, Abbas Kiarostemi and Bahman Ghobadi.

A package of Asian films which had won awards in Cannes, Venice,

Berlin, Locarno, Pusan, London festival will also be screened.

Similarly, the Indian panorama section includes 'Golabi Talkies' by

Girish Kasarvalli, 'Frozen' by Shivajee Chandrabhushan, 'Houseful' by

Bapaditya Banerjee, 'Mohandas' by Mazhar Kamran etc.

'Aai Kot Nai' by Manju Bora and 'Dhunia Tirutabor' by Pradyut Kumar

Deka are the Assamese entry to the festival, where 'The Other Bank' by

George Ovashvili will be shown as the closing movie.

In another important section, a competition for short films under the

Northeast Shots is organized, where three awards will be offered to

the film personalities. Like the earlier festival, three sessions for

discussion are on schedule during the festival. The themes of the

discussions include Asian Cinema and its Salient Features, Future

Roadmap for Cinema on Northeast India, and New Avenues in Financing

Short and Feature Film Projects.
Demise of important Assamese film personalities
The first fortnight of the new year brought sad news to the Assamese

film industry. Two important film personalities of the State died

during the period.
First it was a senior cine-journalist and author Pabitra Kumar Deka

who passed away on January 5 after suffering from a heart attack at

the age of 70. On the other hand, eminent film producer Sailadhar

Baruah breathed his last on January 10 at the age of 69.

The name of Sailadhar Baruah was synonymous with the distinguished

Assamese film director of international repute Jahnu Barua. The two

acclaimed film makers had given some excellent and award wining movies

like 'Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai', 'Firingoti', 'Kukhal Konwar',

'Papori', 'Konikar Ramdhenu', 'Pokhi', 'Tora' etc.
Sailadhar Baruah was associated with sports and theatre activities

since his early years. Later his association with Jahnu brought

laurels to Assam. Their films have won national awards (best movie,

best director, best actress) to international recognition from Locarno

film festival and Tokyo festival.
Died as a bachelor Sailadhar Baruah served the Assam Institute of Mass

Communication and Media Research, Guwahati as its director till his

demise.
On the other hand, Pabitra Kumar Deka was recognized as the dictionary

of Assamese cinema and theatre. Closely associated with Dr Bhupen

Hazarika, Deka made his immense contribution to the cine-journalism of

the State and also film & theatre word as a script writer and

playwright. Deka continued writing for many newspapers on cinema,

theatre and television world till his demise.
Development / Accra / Ghana / Africa / Modernghana.com

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