In 47 years, Manipuri Cinema collects 36 National film awards
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, March 10 2019:
The vice president of Federation of Film Societies of India Premendra Mazumdar said that the Federation has 350 affiliated film societies in India.
Film societies are most concentrated in Kerala where there are 118 film societies.
The next leading State is West Bengal having around 60 film societies.
In the North-Eastern India, Assam has 4 or 5 film societies and one each in Tripura and Manipur.
Where there is a film industry, there is film society, he added.
He was delivering a lecture on- "Present Scenario of Film Society Movement in India" on Saturday during the 3-days FFSI International Women's Film Festival 2019 held at MSFDS Auditorium, Imphal which commenced from March 8 .
The festival was jointly organized by the Federation of Film Societies of India, Film Society of Manipur and Manipur State Film Development Society.
He said: "Apart from those film societies registered under Societies Registration Act, there are more than 100 campus film societies affiliated to the federation.
Universities, big institutions like IITs, medical colleges etc have opened campus film societies.
We have seen that new generation of film makers have come out from IT students" .
He suggested that the universities, institutions and colleges in Manipur may open campus film societies to watch good films and educate themselves about film culture.
He said, "How to read a cinema is what the film societies propagate to the audience.
Film societies create an audience and educate them on cinema.
Jadavpur University has opened the course on Film Studies at Graduate and Master level" .
Good film speaks for itself, he said.
He said Haobam Paban Kumar's Loktak Lairembee (Lady of the Lake) made with a budget of about Rs 11 lakh travelled all over the globe nearly three years.
The film fetched the Golden Gateway for the best film with Rs 25 lakh in cash from JIO MAMI Mumbai International Film Festival 2016 .
In Berlin International Film Festival, Loktak Lairembee was screened in three houses having 800 seats each which were all full house, he added.
Premendra Mazumdar was proud of Manipuri Cinema which had bagged 36 National Film Awards so far in a short span of 47 years.
Such achievement never happened to any regional cinema in the country, he added.
(This story is contributed by Meghachandra Kongbam.
He is president of Film Society of Manipur) .