China's top musical institution invites documentary on Naga folk music

New Delhi, Apr 17 2016

A scene from 'Songs of the Blue Hills' : Pix Courtesy - Utpal Borpujari

In a rare honour, Utpal Borpujari’s much-acclaimed documentary “Songs of the Blue Hills” that chronicles the contemporary Naga folk music practices, has been invited to China’s topmost musical institution Central Conservatory of Music.

The Beijing-based institution has produced some of China’s topmost musicians, including Tan Dun, who won the Oscar, Grammy and BAFTA for his music in Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and also composed for Zhang Yimou’s “Hero”, four-time Grammy nominee Wu Man, Zhao Jiping who composed the music for classics like Zhang’s “Red Sorghum” and Chen Kaige’s “Farewell, My Concubine”, “The Emperor and the Assassin” and “Yellow Earth”, and virtuoso violinist Vanessa Mae.

While the contents of the film will be analysed by the Conservatory’s faculty and students, Borpujari will share with them his experience of making the film as well as discuss about the diversity of folk music traditions of India, with particular focus on Northeast India, during the last week of this month.

“It’s a great honour to be able to present my film before the faculty and students of a world famous musical institution, more so as I would be able to give them an introduction to the rich cultural heritage of Northeast India in general and Nagaland in particular,” said Borpujari, who will also discuss about trends in Indian film music with the students and faculty there.

“Songs of the Blue Hills” has earlier been screened in nearly 20 international film festivals, including in various European countries, the United States, China and India. It was also selected to the prestigious Indian Panorama section of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in 2014.

The film has been praised for bringing together in a single narrative the myriad folk music practices of the Naga tribes in today’s times.

Founded in 1940, the Central Conservatory of Music, located at the former palace of Prince Chun of the Qing Dynasty, was formed by merging some of China’s top musical institutions, such as the National Conservatory of Music, the Peking National School of Fine Arts, and six departments of music in various universities

It is the only institution in Academies of Fine Arts in China, and only key institution of higher learning supervised directly by the Ministry of Education of the State Council among all academies of arts in China.