The film industry is not that prosperous and has been going through a rough phase in Arunachal Pradesh as compared to the sister States of Assam and Manipur or mainland India where the film industry has flourished and is doing a great job in terms of tourism development.  A prestigious award the likes of the Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus Award) at this juncture for the film fraternity of the State is convivial, encouraging and the dawn of a new era for the film industry to prosper in the days to come in a State without any film development corporation.

Sangee Dorjee who belongs to the Sherdukpen tribe of West Kameng district is the first person of his State to pass out from a film school, the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute at Kolkatta. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Delhi University.

‘Crossing Bridges’ is his first feature film based on his own people. It is also the first feature film in Sherdukpen, a dialect of the tribal community living in East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh and ‘Crossing Bridges’ is the first feature film to be produced and directed by a native of the State. The film has been shot in the director’s own village of Shergaon in Arunachal Pradesh.

Prior to this film, Sangee Dorjee Thongdok had made two short films - Pratyabartan and Evening Café.

Congratulating the young filmmaker of the State, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Nabam Tuki has said that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that the film world can expect many breakthroughs in the times to come. “That is why the State Government has decided to encourage and promote the State’s budding filmmakers to be part of the global film industry that could ensure name, fame and money,” Tuki added.

Joining the Chief Minister in congratulating the filmmaker, Secretary IPR, Dani Salu, said that the filmmaker has showed how Arunachalees maintain their rich culture and tradition in spite of leading a very strenuous hard life and that the work he has done is commendable and needs appreciation from all quarters. “Thongdok, who graduated from Kolkata - based Satyajit Ray Film Institute in 2008, made the best use of his talents by venturing into a new arena and succeeded in his maiden attempt,” Salu said even as he wished him success in all his future attempts. 

Thongdok should be emulated by the budding filmmakers who are being promoted by the State Government through its various steps including the organizing of a Film Festival for the second consecutive year and a proposed Film Development Corporation.

The film, ‘Crossing Bridges’ is a well-crafted over two and half hour film that tells the tale of a young man who comes back from Mumbai to his remote village in Arunachal Pradesh to find his roots.

This film was awarded and chosen under ‘Best Feature Film’ in the language specified other than Schedule-VIII of the Constitution’.

Here, Chow Bilaseng Namchoom (CBN) using the medium of Facebook, has had a conversation with the budding multi-talented filmmaker and this is what Sangee Dorjee Thongdok (SDT) has to say….

CBN: Dorjee, tell me about yourself. Where did you grow up? 

What’s your background? When and what made you get into filmmaking?

SDT: I belong to the small village of Jigaon in the western part of Arunachal Pradesh although I was born in the picturesque town of Ziro. My dad was a Government servant posted there. I have beautiful memories of our house surrounded with flowers situated on top of a small hill overlooking the town. Most of my childhood was spent in different boarding schools around the country. I graduated from Hindu college, Delhi University with honours in Sociology but at that point in time I really wasn’t sure what to do with my life. One thing I was certain of was that I didn’t want to end up in a 9 to 5 job. But I did want to do something for my community and so took off time from studies after college and started recording songs and stories of my tribe. I had been fiddling with video cameras which my dad bought since childhood and I found out as I recorded my tribes stories that I enjoyed shooting with the camera and editing the footage, essentially telling a story. It occurred to me that film would be a powerful medium to preserve and tell stories of my people to the outside world. I applied at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata and got through and that’s how it all started.

CBN: How did your parents take your desire to becoming a filmmaker?

SDT: My parents wanted me to go for the civil services and get a Government job. Like all concerned parents they wanted me to have a safe and secure life. But a safe and secure life makes you complacent and blind to the wonder and potential your life can offer if you just stretch yourself a little more. I was resolute in my mind that I wasn’t going for a desk job. So without telling anyone in the family I quietly went to Guwahati and sat for the all India exams for the film school. I only told my parents once I got through. But once they realised I wasn’t about to change my mind, my parents came around and gave me their full support. In fact my film wouldn’t have been made if it wasn’t for my family’s support and help. My parents really encouraged me during the shoot and made sure everyone in my family and all my relatives chipped in with their time and effort. This film is dedicated to them.

CBN: Filmmaking in Arunachal Pradesh is a tough job; do you agree or disagree?

SDT: Film as an industry doesn’t yet exist in Arunachal Pradesh. There is a lot of talent but right now there is severe lack of resources and infrastructure for films as an industry. This can be gauged by the fact that we do not have a single film theatre out here. So naturally filmmaking would be an uphill task. Also Arunachal Pradesh doesn’t have any trained professional DOP or an editor or a sound engineer or other professionals and artists needed for a film crew. So any sort of trained manpower or skill that I need along with all the necessary equipment to shoot a film has to be bought from outside the State. I look forward to the day when I have a trained crew from my own State in my shoot. Having said that, the State Government has now seriously started thinking along those lines and hopefully things will get better soon. The Arunachal film festival is a right step in that direction.

CBN: Please describe your movie, Crossing Bridges.

SDT: Crossing Bridges is about a man who loses his job in Mumbai and is forced to come back and stay home at his remote village in Arunachal Pradesh. He thus slowly begins experiencing the life and culture of his people. I wanted to showcase my community to the outside world which has little knowledge about my people so I put in bits and pieces of our dance and our myth and legends into the film. The protagonist here acts as a vehicle to draw the audience into the community as he comes home and the audience gets to experience the life of his community through his eyes. I therefore went with a simple narrative of a man coming back home to find his roots. That way I had an open canvas to showcase my people and a little of our way of life to the outside world. We shot a major portion of the film in my village of Shergaon, and a few places around it in West Kameng district in Arunachal Pradesh. Since this film was to be shot in my tribal dialect I had to source actors from my community itself. So I ended up calling all my friends and my relations and made them act in my film. But everyone was very enthusiastic about it. Some of the actors were a last minute addition, like just a day before the shoot. We needed to have snowfall so we shot in the month of December and January. It was bitterly cold and a lot of the crew struggled with the weather and the terrain. I made my crew climb mountains and cross freezing rivers to reach the shoot locations, but being such professionals they never complained. In fact the name Crossing Bridges came about during one such excursion to a location when we were crossing a river on foot and my DOP Pooja Gupte suddenly said ‘how many rivers are you making us cross Sange?’ And I suddenly thought hey, that’s a nice name right there, Crossing Rivers, and she and I talked about it and it eventually became Crossing Bridges. It sounded just right for the story of the film and about what the film meant to me.

CBN: In which festivals have you screened the film and which ones are coming up?

SDT: We started off at the Work in Progress Lab at IFFI (International Film Festival of India) at Goa and premiered our film at MAMI (Mumbai Academy of Moving Images) and then at DIFF (Dharamsala International Film Festival), KIFF (Kerala International Film Festival), IFFM (Indian Film Festival Melbourne). It will soon be shown at the Indian Habitat Film Festival in New Delhi and we have also been invited to a few other international film festivals and are in talks with them.

CBN: Describe your state of mind just before your very first screening.

SDT: I was quiet nervous before the premiere at MAMI. This was the first time an audience was about to see my film, and that too my first film. But I was also eager to know the audience reaction and get their feedback. But it was great to see that they loved the film and had very encouraging things to say about it at the interaction session and my crew and I were pleasantly surprised. It really proves that good cinema can cross over any barriers of language, region or geography.

CBN: Any interesting comments from the audience members during a screening?

SDT: Well one thing interesting was that as the audience began to leave after the second screening at MAMI my crew and I heard a man say out loud just ahead of us ‘this was the best film I saw in the festival, maza aa gaya!’ My crew and I looked at each other with such broad smiles.

CBN: What was the budget of the film? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

SDT: This was a small independent film and I knew from the start that money was going to be a constraint so I deliberately chose to use my village for shoots as that way the crew could be accommodated at my house and we wouldn’t need to pay any money for locations and food. Also the crew being my batch mates and friends from film school worked for very less pay. We borrowed vehicles from relatives, shot in my uncle’s house, and basically used whatever resources we could borrow from our friends, family and relatives in the village. This helped to keep the production cost down. All in all the film cost us around thirty five lakhs to make.

CBN: What did you learn from this project?

SDT: Well my biggest lesson was that I actually got to know how to shoot a film! You know more about a road by walking on it than by consulting all the maps of the world. So this being my first feature film, I got to learn a lot of things. It’s really important that you surround yourself with professionals who know their job, that way you can concentrate on yours. The devil is in the details. Cinema is meant for the big screen and in a darkened hall with a hundred people watching on such a large screen, you can’t hide your mistakes or shortcomings. If you get lax in a certain area, it will definitely show up on the big screen. The screen doesn’t lie. This being my first film, I made a lot of mistakes and it showed up on the screen. There are no special effects out there that can mask your slip-ups.

CBN: Did you make this film for yourself or for an audience in mind while writing it?

SDT: Every artist creates art because he feels the need to do so. It’s an extension and an expression of himself. It’s who he or she is. I make films because I feel I need to say something, not sell something. I make films because I feel the need to express myself but I need the audience to complete that experience. Once an audience sees my film, it goes away from me and becomes theirs. They put in their experiences and their life stories onto the film and relate with it accordingly and thus it becomes their film.

CBN: Who are your biggest film influences?

SDT: There have been so many great filmmakers that have influenced me over the years that it would be a really long list. But the filmmakers that really inspire me are the ones from Iran. Filmmakers such as Kirostami, Makhmalbaf, Jafar Panahi, Majid Majidi and others. In spite of very strong censorship and such limitations, the kind of films that have been made there is amazing and some of the best of world cinema. Creativity will always find a means of expression no matter how much one tries to stifle it.

CBN: Anshu Jamsempa, the great Everester of Arunachal Pradesh, has once again proved her mettle in acting in your film beside mountain climbing, what have you to say about her? Also please tell us about the lead actor of your movie.

SDT: Anshu Jamsenpa was a revelation. Her dedication towards her work is remarkable. It was an honour and a great privilege to work with her. We became friendly through the shoot of the film and I was amazed to listen to her life story and the struggles she went through to achieve her dream of climbing Everest. What is remarkable is that despite almost no one believing in her and facing so many obstacles, she never gave up on her dream. That speaks volumes about her character and determination. She came to the shoot with that same positive attitude to do the best that she could and she gave a remarkable performance in spite of facing the camera for the first time in her life. She has absolutely no airs about her and did exactly as she was instructed on the shoot. She also has a keen mind and wanted to learn a lot about the process of filmmaking. It was wonderful to have her as the female lead, she has a great screen presence and she fitted the character perfectly.

CBN: What's your next project?

SDT: I have a couple of scripts ready and hope to start work soon on one. They are all issue based stories on my State as I believe we have a lot of stories which need to be told and which need to be heard. As filmmakers I also believe that we have a certain social responsibility, film being such a powerful medium. My idea has always been to showcase my State and the North East region to the outside world in order to bridge the gap between people, so to speak. So I would like to make films based on the North East region itself.

CBN: How has your life been changed by becoming a filmmaker?

SDT: One great thing about being in this field is that you get to meet some truly remarkable people which you probably would not have otherwise. I had the privilege of meeting some wonderful artists, writers, and filmmakers from around the world as I went places with my film. And it was really an experience getting to know and learn from these people. They inspire you to do better. I don’t think I would have had the privilege of knowing these people had I not been a filmmaker.

CBN: In the tourism perspective, what major role can your film play to highlight the hidden potential of our state to the world?

SDT: Film as a medium is one of the most powerful tools out there to promote a region. It’s no wonder that countries like Switzerland courts Indian cinema to come shoot there as they know it has a direct bearing on the tourism sector of that country. I think the North East region as a whole is truly beautiful and any film shot here would look beautiful on the big screen. Every audience member that saw my film was touched by the scenic beauty depicted in the film. This initiated a lot of dialogue between me and the audience where I could tell them about the North East region and our way of life. This created a lot of interest amongst the audience about our region and many were curious to know more. Generating interest of this kind amongst the audience about a region has a direct effect on the tourism of that place.

CBN: What advice do you have for someone who also wants to make it in the movie business?

SDT: I really wouldn’t have any advice for getting into the film business because I really have no experience in the business end of it, but yes for any aspiring filmmaker who wants to make meaningful cinema, my best advice is to just go out there and shoot. Making films is easy. As Kiarostamy said ‘strip away all the bells and whistles and what you have is a subject and a camera.’ These are the only things you need to shoot a film really. The rest are all etcetera. These days, every camera on the market shoots great video. Even mobiles phones shoot wonderful videos. So just sit down, write a good story, get your hands on any camera that you can, call your friends and start shooting. You’re a filmmaker. It’s that simple. Hope these answers suffice.

Chow Bilaseng Namchoom