With the film culture, picking up pace in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, a documentary film by a filmmaker from the state has been selected for screening at the two international film festivals.

The documentary film, ‘Life in a fistful of rice’ of Tashi Dorje Gyamba has been selected for competitive screening in the film festivals of Docs Without Borders Film Festival in Bahamas and Garifuna International Indigenous Film Festival in Los Angeles on 16 April and 25 April respectively.

The film selected has been produced for ICH Division, Delhi of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), selected for competitive screening in Tow international film festivals.

Tashi Dorje Gyamba (26) who has contributed for the research and documentation of the documentary film said, “The film depicts the cultural heritage of the north-eastern states Nagaland, Meghalaya and Assam that diverge in terms of statehood, yet people belonging within have been sharing cultural heritage beyond boundaries of time and demography.”

Drawing continuities and parallels intermittently in these three different states, the film is a documentation of cultures fundamentally rooted in essence of rice, he added.

He said, “This is my first documentary film that has been selected for screening at a global level.” Besides, a book an extended script of the documentary film “Life in a Fistful of Rice’ is on way, he added.

Haling from Pooh village in the tribal belt of Kinnaur, Tashi after his basic education from Shimla shifted to Delhi for higher education.

A product of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, having passed out from the institute in 2014, Tashi worked for few independent organisation and production houses across the country before the INTACH project came his way.

As an independent film-maker his short documentary film, ‘Shirkin Mela’ capturing the rich cultural heritage of his native village, Pooh is amongst the 145 films to be screened at the 5th edition of International Festival of Short Films on Culture and Tourism (IFFC-V) at Jaipur, Rajasthan in the last week of March.

The film festival had received as many as 2,402 films from 113 countries. The ‘Shirkin Mela’ depicts a post-harvest festival celebrated in the pocket of trans-Himalayas. “Other than copious libation, dance and songs, the festival culminates as a confluence between well-wishes for new born and remembering those who passed away in the last year, said Tashi.

The short film about 10 minutes uploaded on 14 December, 2017 on YouTube has already earned appreciation with as many 3,810 views till date.