Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Ajay Mittal today said North East Film Festival (NEFF) 'Fragrances from the North East' is an unique window to films, food, culture and handicrafts diversity of the region.
"Fragrances from the North East served as a unique window to the films, food, culture and handicrafts diversity of North East and enabled the cultural amalgamation of the region with the rest of the country," said Mittal, while inaugurating the festival at National Film Archive of India (NFAI), here.
The objective of the film festival to sensitise people from other regions to the culture of the North East as envisaged in the "Ek Bharat Shreshta Bharat" programme of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an official release said.
A decision had now been taken to organise the festival in different cities every year as part of the "Ek Bharat Shreshta Bharat" vision, it added.
The opening film for this festival "Kothanodi" by the debut director Bhaskar Hazarika has wowed the international audience with his poetic film depicting folk stories.
The festival is also screening "Loktak Lairambi" which has already been making waves in the global film circuit after being premiered in Busan and has now been selected for forthcoming Berlin film festival.
The three-day festival is being held at NFAI campus, between January 28 to 30.
Highlighting some of the initiatives taken by I&B ministry to promote cinema in the North East, Mittal said the focus has been to provide multiple platforms through workshops, film festivals, interactive sessions and special screenings at IFFI focusing on the region.
"As part of the new initiative, the Ministry sponsored 10 film makers from the North East for the first time to attend the IFFI in Goa," said the release.
The objective was to give an opportunity to young and emerging film makers from the region to interact with the foreign delegates attending IFFI and also explore collaborations with international film production houses, ensuring wider reach and audience for NE films, it added.
Mittal said the National Film Awards and Indian Panorama over the years had been discovering and honouring the talents from the North East, specially in languages which were not specified other than the Schedule VIII of the Constitution.
Some of the films had won accolades in the international film festivals all over the world. The Indian Panorama had eight films selected from the North East region this year, it added.
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