Assamese filmmaker Joor Baruah’s documentary Voice of Siang has been selected for the 11th Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) 2020.
The film is about the beautiful Adi people of Arunachal Pradesh and their resilience amidst issues related to their land, water and identity.
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Voice of Siang recently won the Best Documentary award at the DC South Asian Film Festival (DCSAFF) 2020, United States.
It’s official selections and screening include Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2020, Coalition of South Asian Film Festivals (COSAFF) 2020, Chicago South Asian Film Festival 2020, South Asian Film Festival of Montreal 2020, Vancouver International Asian Film Festival 2020, Tasveer International Film Festival 2020, New Delhi Film Festival 2019, Brahmaputra Valley International Film Festival 2019 and Open Frame Film Festival 2019.
Joor Baruah has a Masters in Documentary Filmmaking from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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His previous film Adi | At The Confluence, a shorter version on the same subject, has been shown in over 40 film festivals, 10 countries, 3 languages and has won 8 best documentary awards.
Baruah is working on his next film and shares his time between Washington DC, California and Assam.
The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) kick-started with the virtual screening of Vidya Balan-starrer Natkhat and sports drama Habbadi.
This year, the festival will witness 34 international premiers and over 50 Australian premiers.
The movie gala will also honour Bollywood stars Irrfan Khan, Rishi Kapoor and Sushant Singh Rajput, who passed away this year.
The festival, which is being held online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, will screen 60 movies in 17 languages over the course of eight days.
Along with Voice of Siang (Assamese, Adi, English), the two other films screening in IFFM 2020 in Assamese are JWLW1 The Seed (Bodo, Assamese, Hindi, English, Thai) directed by Rajni Basumatary and Adil Hussain starrer Nirvana Inn (Hindi Assamese) directed by Vijay Jayapal.
Two other PSBT documentaries – Ekta Mittal’s Gumnaam Din and Nirmal Chander’s Moti Bagh will be screened at the festival.