Key Points
In nine years of helping to curate and organise film festivals, Ive come to realise that this job requires a touch of masochism..
PREMIUM Stills from Rima Dass film Toras Husband, and the animated short Taar by Tsering Lhanzes..
The festival was led by commissioner Padma Angmo and the Leh department of information and public relations, while my company Film Companion was in charge of the editorial palette: curation, masterclasses, workshops and a pitch tank..
There were some eclectic stories on view too, including Romi Meiteis heartbreaking Eikhoigi Yum (Meitei for Our Home; about an isolated fishing communitys struggle to survive), Avinash Aruns poignant Three of Us (Hindi; about a woman revisiting sites of her childhood while battling early symptoms of dementia) and Rizza Alees It Is This (about a new generation seeking a semblance of freedom in snowboarding, in Kashmir)..
One of my favourite memories from the festival was a networking dinner during which filmmakers from the region sat down with Vikram and Meghalayan filmmaker Dominic Sangma and chatted for hours about their craft..
