A. After the Smoke and Ammo: Assam’s Memories
An Autumn Fable
Duphang-ni Solo- India (Assam) / 1997 / English, Bodo / Color / DCP (Original: 16mm) / 45 min
Director, Narration: Pinky Brahma Choudhury
Script: Pinky Brahma Choudhury, Shobhit Jain
Photography: Sameer Mahajan
Producer: Niraj Suji
Production Company, Source: Rajendra Films
A muscleman with the strength and appetite of a dozen men; a prince disguised as a beast to reclaim his throne; a beautiful princess whose swordplay defeats all. Each autumn, the Bodo tribespeople act out legends from an ancient tradition under the open night sky. Meanwhile, the people fight for a separate state and political identity. The movement turned to violence, which consumed it. The community suffered immensely. From fear and suspicion emerged silence. But alongside armed soldiers, relief camps, and ravages of destruction, were the whispers of this land since time immemorial echoing in the form of stories and plays. With the hope that lore and memory invoke a life force renewed among the people, a female filmmaker of Bodo ancestry records the myths that also reflect the essence of the times. Shown in YIDFF ’99’s New Asian Currents.
InterviewTales from Our Childhood
Loralir Sadhukatha- INDIA (Assam) / 2018 / Assamese / Color, B&W / DCP / 69 min
Director, Script, Photography, Editing: Mukul Haloi
Sound Design, Mixing: Rahul Rabha
Production: School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
Source: Mukul Haloi
The filmmaker’s childhood friend dons a borrowed uniform and poses as a rebel. Another friend opens an old diary. Other friends rehearse a play from the filmmaker’s childhood days. A poem by an insurgent is recited. The film embarks on a journey to revive the memory of growing up in Assam in the 1990s—a turbulent time when the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) was heading an armed rebellion for independence from India. Violence, death, and disappearance were daily stories during the filmmaker’s childhood. The filmmaker, born in 1991, recollects fragments and reconstructs memories through personal narratives of his friends, parents, and relatives.