Action re:PLAY - Sevensisters Post

Rahul Jain:

Cinephiles, time to plan a trip to Imphal early next year. The reason: Manipur will play host to re:PLAY, a film festival on performance and sports along with extended three 10-day workshops, from January 5 to 15, 2013. It will see screenings of nearly 20 films, spread over five days, with two screening programmes a day and three over the weekend.

The festival is the brainchild of Governor Gurbachan Singh Jagat, in association with Somi Roy, a Manipuri who is an international film festival curator in New York and the executive producer of the Gold Coast International Film Festival.

The festival will be presented by Hun-tre! International Manipuri Projects, a non-profit organisation working in Imphal on international projects in the fields of sports, culture, education and technology.

?I was on one of my visits to Imphal, where I spend up to four months a year. I told the Governor of my Major League Baseball coaching camps that I was organising, introducing myself to him. When he learned that I was a film curator in New York, he asked me if I would like to organise a festival in Manipur. I said yes, as I felt Manipur needed an international film festival,? Somi told Seven Sisters Post over phone from New York, as to how the festival saw the light of the day. He also expressed his gratitude to the Manipur Governor, the Manipur Film Development Corporation and the Department of Art and Culture for making the initiative a success thus far.

Re:PLAY takes a best-of-fest approach to bring selections from distinguished international film festivals. It pays special attention to films about sports and performance in recognition of Manipur?s distinction in these fields. Roy said, ?We wanted something which Manipur and its people could relate to.? For example, Manipur is known around the world for its sporting prowess and performing arts. They provide the state with international connection, and so, we decided that a festival based on sports and performance is the way to go about it.? The festival is in its third edition now and in all likelihood will continue to grow and expand. Roy said that the festival would be evaluated after the first three editions, and a decision on its future would then be taken.

Aribam Syam Sarma, under whose aegis the festival is being held every year, said that he was keen to have a Northeast presence for the film festival. ?I feel the festival can act as a bridge between the other states of the region. I want the festival to travel to Assam and even Meghalaya immediately after Manipur hosts it,? he told SSP over phone from Imphal. Let us not forget that Assam is very important for the Northeast, and it is in the fitness of things that Guwahati, too, hosts a festival of this magnitude, Sarma added. ?Yes, talks are on at specific level with possible organisers in Assam?, Roy said without detailing on the specifics. ?The beauty of the festival is that it is centred around workshops, which are beneficial to students in general and filmmakers in particular,? Sarma remarked highlighting the USP of the event.

Among one of the beneficiaries of the concept is filmmaker and columnist Bobo Khuraijam. ?I was one of the participants in the screenplay workshop by Alexandria Viets in 2012. The idea of incorporating workshop in a festival is a worthy step in encouraging young people to get exposed to cutting-edge knowledge and practice,? he said. Khuraijam added that since film making is a dense area and demands a wide area of studies, getting oneself exposed to a particular area can open one up to a diverse aspects on film education. ?This was an opportunity for film students to learn new things, particularly for those who are in Manipur, as there is no film school here,? he said.

Two other workshops in 2012 edition of the festival ? on dance and observational video ? were conducted by Yoshiko Chuma and Iben Trina-Mollenkamp, respectively. Among the novelty of the festival has been the emphasis on documentation, for instance, documentation of performance.

Roy said that when the festival was conceived, the idea was to be unique. ?We wanted to have a different approach. We could have been like Kerala or Goa, but we consciously decided not to replicate these festivals,? he said.? He said that based on his contacts with film directors in the US and other parts of the world, he has been able to bring their best films to the festivals in Manipur and hence the name re:PLAY. He informed SSP that the festival was growing in size and concept and has become a niche one. ?It has been appreciated even in the US since it is a reversal of tradition,? Roy informed this reporter while stating that amidst all this, the focus has been on the anthropological, ethnographical and the experimental nature of the films during their selection.

Another specific area the festival will focus on will be to encourage and emphasise the viability of the digital format filmmaking, something in which Manipur has earmarked for itself a place in history by unofficially being the only state in the country with a full-fledged digital film industry.

The targeted audience of the festival has been filmmakers and the cultural community although lay audience was also there in numbers.? ?The festival will provide filmmakers of Manipur a much-needed view of international filmmaking as well as bring focused filmmaking workshops to the state?s artistic community,? Roy said. The dance film appreciation and cultural criticism workshop shall be conducted by Dierdre Towers, who is the former editor of Dance Magazine, and co-curator of Dance on Camera, the annual festival of dance films presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

The screenplay writing workshop Part 2 will be conducted by Viets, who was the screenwriter for Merchant Ivory?s ?Cotton Mary?. The advanced workshop will be for students selected from the previous year?s workshop. The Observational Video Workshop to be conducted by Mollenkamp will be on ethnography, culture and civil society. Mollenkamp has worked with musician Peter Gabriel and has conducted small-format camera workshop on observational video, ranging from ethnography in the Philippines to civil society in Sri Lanka.

The focus of next year?s festival will be The Netherlands. There will also be a master class with a Dutch filmmaker. In 2012, the country focus was Indonesia.? ?I have told the instructors that Manipuris know how to make films, but we need to present them with how to see films,? Roy told this correspondent emphasising the way a filmmaker needs to explore the art through ideas, concept, framing and observation. But it is not that filmmakers alone have benefitted. As Khuraijam puts it, ?Festival of this kind should be held on a regular basis. It provides opportunities for building a meaningful cinematic culture. It helps in shaping a critical view of not only watching but also studying cinema.?

Source: http://sevensisterspost.com/action-replay/

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