‘Songs of the Blue Hills’ docu for Australia

New Delhi, August 6, 2014: “Songs of the Blue Hills”, a feature-length documentary on contemporary Naga folk music directed by National Award-winning film critic-turned-filmmaker Utpal Borpujari, will soon be screened in China, Italy and Romania, apart from competing in the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Australia.

The film, produced by Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT) of Union Ministry of Culture, has been invited to the prestigious Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival and the Silk Road International Film Festival, both in China, the 21st IFFEST Document Art Film Festival in Bucharest, Romania and the Parma Internatonal Music Film Festival in Italy.

With this, the film has till now been selected to 14 international film festivals. Earlier, it has been screened at the 11th Eyes & Lenses Ethnographic Film Festival in Warsaw (Poland), the New York Indian Film Festival, the Gothenberg Indie Film Festival (Sweden), Visions du Reel in Nyon (Switzerland), the World Music & Independent Film Festival in Washington, Signs 2014 in Kochi (Kerala), the Ischia International Film Festival, Italy, Ladakh International Film Festival, and the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram.

“Songs of the Blue Hills” will also compete in the Eighth Annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), to be held in Brisbane, Australia and organised in collaboration with UNESCO and FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Associations) to celebrate the diversity of cinema from the Asia Pacific region.

The 96-minute film features an eclectic range of Naga musicians who are practising the folk music of various Naga tribes in their pure and contemporary forms. Among the musicians featured in it are veteran Ao folk singers Sademmeren Longkumer and A Bendangyanger Tsuwar Jamir, Chakhesang folk veteran Zachunu Keyho, classical pianist Nise Meruno, and groups like Tetseo Sisters, Nagaland Singing Ambassadors, Chancel Choir, Ru’a, Üsou’s Instrumental, Abiogenesis, Nagagenous, Baptist Youth Choir Poilwa Village and Purple Fusion.

Shot extensively across Nagaland, the film’s crew comprised Biswajeet Changmai (cinematography), Debajit Gayan (sound), Umesh Kumar (Editor), Atanu Phukan (research & coordination) and Aiyushman Dutta (research & art direction).

Source: Assam Tribune