5th Guwahati Film Festival 2012 organized by Gauhati Cine Club 10th-16th. December 2012

The 5th Guwahati Film Festival organized by the Gauhati Cine Club from 10th.-16th. December 2012 in association with the European Union and Film Federation Society of India, Eastern region at Rabindra Bhawan Auditorium has been concluded very successfully on 16th December 2012.

The Inaugural Function was held on 10th December evening at 5.00PM and Sri AK Absar Hazarika, President of Gauhati Cine Club welcomed all. In his welcome address he reiterated the objective of film society movements and urged everybody to strengthen the hand of Gauhati Cine Club which was founded by the Legendry artist Dr. Bhupen Hazarika in the year 1965. The Gauhati Cine Club is marching towards the Golden Jubilee celebration in 2015.

The Festival was dedicated to one of the most multi talented Assamese film maker Brojen Baruah, who died prematurely at the prime of his career and �Dr. Bezbaruah,� a film made by him in the year 1969 was the first commercially successful Assamese film. To pay homage to the director, his film Lolita (1969/116 mnts) was screened on 16th December 2012 at 3.30 Pm.

The 5th Guwahati Film Festival was inaugurated by Sri Aribam Syam Sharma, internationally acclaimed film maker from Manipur by lighting the Lamp. Smt. Tonthoi Leishangthen, a national award winner actor from Manipur also the leading lady of the inaugural film had graced the occasion as the Special Guest. The daughter and younger brother of Brojen Barua respectively Smt. Manami Bezbarua and music director Ramen Baruah were also present.

In his inaugural speech Sri Arimbam Syam Sharma said that this kind of Festival is very much needed to have exposer to the new ideas, concepts and latest technical know how about film making which is very rapidly changing and growing around the globe. Moreover it will bridge the regional cultural gap within the country in particular and the rest of the world in general. He also added that the Govt. should come forward to help financially to this kind of volunteer organizations

Smti Tonthoi, Manami Bezbaruah and Ramen Baruah also spoke very briefly on the occasion.

LEIPAKLEI (Dir. Aribam Syam Sharma/ Manipur/ 75 mnts) was screened as the inaugural film. The film was highly acclaimed and there was a short interactive session between the Director, Actor and the audience.

During the 7 days long Festival total 19 nos. of films screened and out of which 9 (nine) nos. from European Union; 8 nos. from FFSI ER, one from Manipur and one Assamese . 5 nos. of short films from EU under BAFTA package and a documentary made by Merajur Rahaman Baruah (Green Army, Savior of the Sylvan, based on true story of surrendered extremists who formed an organization to save the Manas National Park) were also screened.

In commemoration of 76 years of Assamese film an Exhibition of still photographs of films, posters and advertisement material regarding Assamese films, has also been organized on the occasion of the Film festival which was highly appreciated by all the viewers. Still photographs of Joymati, the first Assamese film made by Jyoti Prasad Agarwala in the year 1935 and third film Monomati were also featured in the exhibition.

The number of viewers was increasing day by day because 5 days of the festival were of working days of the week. In the evening slot and weekends we had huge number of audiences� full packed house in 500 hundred capacity auditorium. There was a spectacular increase in the numbers of young viewers.

On 16th December after screening the film made by Brojen Baruah a brief Closing Ceremony was held where Sri Atanu Choudhury, son of producer Apurba Kr. Choudhury of the film Lolita was felicitated. Sri Atanu Choudhury has taken care to preserve the copy of the film made in the year 1972.

The last film of the festival was �Innocent Voices� (Mexico, Dir. Luis Mendoki, 110 mnts). The storyline and its overall impact of the film mesmerized all the viewers and everybody present in the show expressed their thanks & gratitude to the organizer i.e. Gauhati Cine Club for its efforts to bring good and meaningful films to the common viewers and wish the club will continue its journey in creating quality audiences.

Closing Ceremony: In the brief closing function Madhurima Barua the Secretary of Gauhati Cine Club stated that organising a Film festival by a Volunteer organization like Gauhati cine club is a fruit of continuous collective efforts of all the members of the Executive Committee and general members. She offered thanks to Sri Badal Chakravarty & Anima Gohain Advisors, A K Absar Hazarika, President GCC who being the always a support for the entire process, Sri Ranjib Baruah and Dr. Dibakar Kalita Vice President GCC for their active participation, Humayun Choudhury, the Jt. secretary for jointly sharing the responsibilities of making the festival a success, EC members Kanak Ch,. Kalita, Dr. Nayanjyoti Sarma, Bimal Sarma, Dr. Garima Kalita, Kushal Dutta, Jayanta Sarma, Raju Arya and the Young Turk of GCC Hiranya Kalita, Gaurab Borthakur etc.

The Life Member Card Distribution Ceremony: The much waited function i.e. distribution of Life Member card was held on 24th February. As Gauhati cine Club was lacking of very systematic data base, it was bery difficult to collect , listed and organized the names of all the life members since its inception. Though due to hard work put in by Humayun Choudhury JT. Secretary, with the help of senior member Mrigen Das, Kanak ch. Kalita, Probodh Das etc. we could enlisted *** no. of life members. Distribution of invitation card was also a very hard task. Raj Kumar Arya EC member, Humayun Choudhury Jt. Secy. of GCC gave a good effort to find out members address in Fancy Bazar area and Uzan Bazar area.

The EC of GCC decided to felicitate following senior members and declare as Honorary Members, they are:Dr. Birendra Nath Datta, Dr. Hiren Gohain, Apurba Kr. Das, Dilip Kr. Hazarika, Anima Gohain and Dr. Sameer Todi.

The meeting of distribution of life member cards was held at the Lakmiram Baruah Sadan, A K Absar Hazarika, the president of Gauhati Cine Club presided over the meeting. The function was well attended and nearly 30 persons turned up to receive Life member card on the very day out of enlisted total *** life members.

Photo to be incorporated.

Foundation Day Lecture: 26th April is the foundation day of Gauhati Cine Club. This year we contacted Prof Mihir Ranjan Bhattacharya, retired Professor of Deptt. of English and Film Studies of prestigious Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He had agreed to deliver the Foundation Day Lecture and he selected a very contemporary topic, �Cinema and Bad New times�. The lecture was a highly successful, a handful of students from Mass Com [and Journalism Deptt. of Gauhati University, Cotton College and other mass media institutes, general members of GCC and interested public turned up to hear his lecture. It was a very contemporary, thought provoking and highly intellectual lecture

The lecture was followed by screening of two short films, namely****8

Ms. Bobbeeta Sarma, the Chair person of Assam Film (Finance & Development) Corporation graced the occasion. Photo**8

Short, Documentary & animation film festival: From 10th to 12th May 2013, Gauhati Cine Club had organized a Short, Documentary & Animation Film Screening at the Laksmiram Barua Sadan, Guwahati. Gauhati Cine Club is very much concerned about social issues and it takes it as a responsibility to create awareness towards social issues among audiences by way of film screening. The theme of the Short, Documentary & Animation films was mainly social issues like Environment pollution as global problem, to break social Taboo towards HIV + persons, injustice done to women and children, fight for Democracy etc.

The 3 (three) days screening was inaugurated by Sri Gautam Bora, a much acclaimed National award winner and an eminent documentary and feature film maker, on 10th May at 3.00 PM and the inaugural documentary film was� Old Man River� made by Gautam Bora. This Documentary was awarded �the Best Documentary� in the just concluded State Film Award Festival of Assam 2013.

The inaugural film screening was followed by Zoo, Silent Snow & Can�t Take it anymore on 10th May. Films shown from Dutch Documentary package received from the Cine Central , Kolkata were Glass, Views on Vermeer, Jimmy Rosenberg, Four elements, All things flow, Zoo, Silent Snow along with Mr. India (Paban Haobam, India, Manipur), Can�t take it anymore ( India) and a package of student animation and short films from the students of National Institute of Design , Ahmedebad, they were Burma Dreams(Samridhi Thapliyal), Rimpa & Baideo,(Shreya sen)etc.

There as many as 23 Nos. of short, documentary and animation films were screened.

The screening was enjoyed by people every day and everybody appreciated it.

The main objective of Gauhati Cine Club was fulfilled by screening of social issue based documentaries and the club is very grateful to Cine Central, Kolkata for offering its helping hand towards the club.

Lecture cum Demonstration by Sekhor Mukerjee. The Head of the Deptt. of Animation Film Design of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad was in the city. The Gauhati Cine Club organized a Lecture cum Demonstration on the subject: �Indian Animation �.a long way to go�, in association with Cotton College State University at the conference Hall of Cotton College on 23rd. May 2013. The lecture cum demonstration was an excellent exposure to the student of Guwahati in general and student of Mass com, film making and animation film making in particular. The Vice Chancellor of Cotton College State University inaugurated the Lecture cum Demonstration and A K Absar Hazarika , President of Gauhati Cine Club gave the welcome speech. The Conference hall was packed with students & audiences.

7thJyoti Prasad Memorial Lecture: 7th Jyoti Prasad Memorial Lecture for the year 2012was held on 28th July 2013 at the Laksmiram Baruah Sadan. The Lecture was delivered by the veteran film & Drama personality Kulada Kumar Bhattacharjee on the subject: �The Survival Strategy of cinema in a multi Lingual & multi ethnic state: Assam� . The thought provoking and well researched lecture was attended by odd 80-85 audiences and highly appreciated.

The much appreciated Lecture was followed by film screening*****

Joint venture with the Pragjyoti Sanskritik Samaj: The Pragjyoti Sanskritik Samaj of ITA, Pragjyoti Machkhowa extended logistic support to Gauhati Cine club to organize screening of films. As a joint effort a film screening was organized on 15th August 2013 at the Seminar Hall of Pragjyoti ITA Machkhowa. �The Boy with Stripped Pyjama� (****) was viewed by more than 120 audiences and the hall was full. The success of film screening among the viewers encouraged the GCC to take up this kind of Venture in future. Screening at ITA, Machkhowa had helped the GCC to fulfille its much oblized objective.

Special screening of film by Tom Alter: The eminent film personality Tom Alter had produced a film namely, �Cheekha�.the crier�, which was directed by a young director called M Adeyapath Rajan from Kerala. The special screening of the film was organized on 28th September 2013 at the Seminar Hall of Pragjyoti ITA Machkhowa in association of ragjyoti Sanskritik Samaj. The producer of the film Tom Alter had graced the occasion and a galaxy of film personality had seen the film. Before the screening Tom Alter was felicitated by the Gauhati Cine Club along with the PSS. The special screening of the film was really a special as the film was screened in the Kolkata Film Festival 2012, Ladakh Film Festival and Prestigious Kerala Film Festival. Gauhati Cine Club has been very grateful to Tom Alter for allowing us to screen his film and look forward for a long and association with him.

Inauguration of Chitra chinta: Gauhati Cine Club�s journal Chitra Chinta 2011-13 has been published and inaugurated by Tom Alter before the screening of the film on 28th September. The journal has been long due and could not bring out earlier due to some unavoidable reasons.

Total nos. of Film screening
Total no. of Life Member
Total no. of General member renewed up to October 2013.
Total no of EC Meeting held