The three-day SMILE Film Festival came to an eventful end on April 26 with an aim of taking some new steps for the development of the youth in the near future. The audience and former members of the SMILE organisation formed a Smile Movie Club at the end of the festival. The Smile Movie Club will be screening various documentary films by conducting youth related events in Northeast to generate social awareness.
Students Mobilization Initiative for Learning through Exposure (SMILE) is a youth programme under the aegis of the Indo Global Social Service Society (IGSSS). The film festival was inaugurated on April 24 at Darwin School of Business by the state coordinator of IGSSS, Ritupon Gogoi. During the film festival, Gogoi mentioned about various programmes undertaken by IGSSS to bring about a change in the lives of the youth.
"Our objective is to make a difference in the lives of these sections by establishing meaningful partnerships with NGOs and communities at the grassroots," Gogoi said.
At the inauguration ceremony, Anirban Choudhury, Director of Darwin School of Business, highlighted the importance of documentaries which indirectly helps in creating awareness about social issues and social changes. Documentaries reflecting different social issues were screened during the film festival and there were healthy debates amongst the audience after the each screenings.
The documentaries screened during the festival were Soldiers in Sarong directed by Lokendra Arambam, Lakshmi and Me, Hollow Cylinder, Chilika Banks-Stories from India’s Largest Coastal Lake, Assassination, Nobody’s Man directed by Mrinal Talukdar, Zindagi, Vanishing Vulture, Pictures Don’t Lie, Road to Chandrapura, Jankari Call Centre.
Soldiers in Sarong is a film about the archaic security laws in force in the Northeast. It is a portrayal of the peoples resistance movement for human rights. Hollow Cylinder was partly triggered off by the controversy among India's foresters and policymakers as to whether bamboo is a tree or a grass. Assassination was a documentary based on the right to food and was produced for the Human Rights Law Network, an organisation of legal activists. This film was screened to generate awareness elated to the right to food and how this type of campaign is important in the Northeast.
The Centre for Civil Society, New Delhi, North East Network, Guwahati, Human Rights Law Network, Guwahati Chapter, Voluntary Health Association of India, and Image North East had provided the films screened at the SMILE Film Festival.