IMPHAL, February 3: Haobam Paban Kumar’s non-feature film ‘Phum Shang’ (Floating Life) has clinched the Golden Conch Award in the international competition section for the documentary film under 60 minutes category at the 14th edition of Mumbai International Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films, popularly known as MIFF.
The award carries a cash prize of Rs 3 lakhs for the film’s director and Rs 2 lakhs for the producer.
‘Phum Shang’ is a 52-minute film which depicts the displaced fisherman after Manipur government in 2011 burnt down hundreds of huts at the Loktak Lake in the pretext of cleaning the lake and blaming the locals for polluting the lake.
Thousands of fisherman were displaced, became homeless and their livelihood snatched. Nowhere to go, the fisherman continued to fight the authorities. They resorted to fight a losing battle where the authorities even questioned their being a native of the lake since they live on floating huts built on the floating biomass.
The film covers the whole event extensively and more interestingly it also shows the making of Phum Shang where fisherman were engaged in making their unique hut, making layers of biomass where they erect a home.
The film is produced by Films Division, Mumbai. Irom Maipak is the cameramen, while Sankar is the editor and Sukanta Mazumdar worked on sound.
This is the second time for Haobam Paban Kumar who got the selection of his film in the International competition of the MIFF. In MIFF 2006, his film ‘AFSPA 1958’ was awarded International Jury Award with a prize money of Rs 1 lakh and the prestigious International FIPRESCI Critics Award with certificate of merit in the international competition for documentary films.
MIFF is one of the most prestigious festivals in the documentary, short and animation genre at par with international film festivals like Leipzig, Berlin, Oberhausen, Cracow and Tampere etc
Five films namely ‘Hard To Believe’ directed by Ken Stone from USA, ‘Phum Sang’ by Haobam Paban Kumar from India, ‘The Deer, Tree and Me’ by Teena Kaur from India, ‘Tashi and the Monk’ by Johnny Burke and Andrew Hinton from UK and ‘The Boy From My Window’ by Kesang Tsetan from Nepal entered the final round of the competition for the Best Documentary Film in the category in which Haobam Paban won the prestigious title.