Shillong, March 1 : Nineteen award winning films of the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) will be screened in Shillong during three-day non-competitive documentary short and animation film festival “MIFF in Meghalaya”, which got under way today. The objective of this festival is to encourage local filmmakers and producers from the region to take their projects on the national and international stage. The film festival, to be held at the premier North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), will feature documentary, short and animation films such as “Fireflies in the Abyss” related to rat-hole coal mining in Meghalaya. The festival, hosted jointly by Films division, government of India and Department of Journalism and Mass communication , opened “Little Terrorist”, which was nominated for the Oscar in 2005. “Our intention to host the film festival here in Meghalaya is to promote local filmmakers and producers from the region to take their projects on the national and international stage,” Films Division Senior Branch Manager Sumay Mukherjee said. The northeastern states have so much of potential in the film industry and the filmmakers and producers have exhibited their quality productions at the national and international events,” Mukherjee said. Besides the 19 award winning films of MIFF, some of the finest cinematic works realised in the past few years throughout the world, including films from countries like Romania, Britain, Australia and India would be screened during the festival. Directed by Ashvin Kumar, “Little Terrorist” is the story of a 12-year-old Pakistani Muslim boy who crosses the minefield-strewn border and enters India by mistake. “Fireflies in the Abyss”, directed by Chandrasekhar Reddy, tells the tale of rat-hole mining in the mineral-rich Jaintia hills. In the hostile pits, men and boys risk their lives every day to scratch coal out of hard rock, burrowing into narrow tunnels, armed with nothing more than a pickaxe and a torch.
