Of dust storms and comic book readings at CineASA film fest, Guwahati

Utpal Borpujari
Extract

We have this new (established about two years ago) film society in Guwahati, called the Cine Art Society, Asom (CineASA). Well, actually, Guwahati has three major film societies - The Gauhati Cine Club, which was established by the likes of Dr Bhupen Hazarika and Jnanpith Award-winning writer the late Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya, and the Assam Cine Art Society (ACAS), and directly or indirectly I have been involved with all the three. Gauhati Cine Club screenings gave us, then youngsters in the 1980s, a window to classics of world cinema (it even now does so to cineasts in the city), and ACAS, which has become of late very irregular in its activities, gave us a chance to watch a lot of world cinema and cinema from various parts of India by screening the Indian Panorama packages. All the three societies have the involvement of film personalities of the state, and there is a healthy sense of competition among the three (which is always good from the viewpoint of the viewer).

CineASA, which is doing an innovative thing in Assam, where there are a lot of people interested in watching good cinema but without having any access to them, by tying up with other film clubs in various towns and cities and taking films from outside to those places, last year started an international festival of short films in collaboration with a Canadian organisation. The tie-up had happened thanks to Joseph Pulinthanath, a Keralite Christian missionary who has made Tripura his home, and has made - very courageously - two films in the tribal language Kokborok, the second one, Yarwng (The Roots) having got selected as the opening film of Indian Panorama at the last IFFI. Maybe because of the economic meltdown, the Canadian organisation could not provide CineASA with the package this time, but the festival happened during March 16-20, with the help of Fulmarxx of Ahmedabad (which organised by Fulmarxx short film competitive festival last year and this year is planning to upgrade it to the Ahmedabad International Film Festival - PFC I understand too is going to collaborate with it), which provided a wonderful package of short films. Palador provided some interesting world cinema too.

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