The film industry of Assam is booming and witnessing a major change. In order to boost the film sector, the state government is taking various steps to improve the movie industry.
Recently, with an aim to integrate the world through cinema, a week-long film festival, named Guwahati International Film Festival (GIFF), was held at Srimanta Sankardev International Auditorium in Guwahati.
Cine Goers, filmmakers, directors, film lovers from all across the region and the world thronged the first-ever International Film Festival that was held in the beautiful city of Guwahati.
As many as 108 films from 50 different countries were screened during the festival. The film festival focused on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region.
Inaugurated by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the film festival was organized by Jyoti Chitraban in association with Dr. Bhupen Hazarika Regional Film and Television Institute.
Sonowal expressed happiness over the same and said, "the objective of the films - the country has to be united, the world has to be united- through filmmaking. To make the whole world as a family and also to promote the sense of humanity, sense of love and affection and a sense of brotherhood, I believe that is the theme of this particular International (film) festival."
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The festival opened with the screening of the 12-time national award-winning Jahnu Barua's film 'Bhoga Khiriki' (Broken Window).
More than thousands of students from various schools, colleges and universities from across the state thronged the GIFF-2018.
Besides the screening of films, the festival witnessed extraordinary cultural performances, master classes and interactive sessions with internationally acclaimed film directors.
Canadian filmmaker, Mathew Roy believes that it's an amazing opportunity and stated, "It's a great opportunity to have guests from all over the world to discover Assam and to discover its culture and its films. And let's hope that it will be a way to promote tourism as well. I am very happy to be in Assam and the CM was talking about great film Village Rockstars by Rima Das which I watch two days back in Mumbai. I was flabbergasted by the quality of the film, I think it's wonderful."
Later, Sonowal, in his speech, said that he considers movie is a one way to improve humanity as events like this promotes culture and connects the world and unites internationally acclaimed filmmakers to attend the event.
Moreover, the festival acted as a platform for local talent, as it provided an opportunity to the film directors of Assam and the entire northeast region to showcase their cinemas along with the world cinemas.
Epson Lal Borua, a Musician, said that he thinks the craze among people for Assame movies is growing again. "Assamese movie is growing again. The industry was struggling for a long time. I have not many words to describe the artists of northeast because there is a pool of talents here. It was during the time of Jyoti Prasad Agarwala when he started making movies, in other parts of the region there were not many movies. Gradually with time, it has improved a lot, even with the inspirations of the seniors, the new filmmakers are making good films," he said.
This year, as many as 70 filmmakers, actors and crew members participated in the GIFF-2018. Apart from the ASEAN, films from the US, the UK, Spain, France, Argentina, Poland, Hungary, Italy, Croatia, Latvia, Israel, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Bangladesh.