Entertainment
Int’l Folk Music Film Fest in November
The eighth iteration of the International Folk Music Film Festival, Nepal, will take place in November. The event this year is themed ‘Music for Life, Music for Survival’.The eighth iteration of the International Folk Music Film Festival, Nepal, will take place in November. The event this year is themed ‘Music for Life, Music for Survival’.
The organisers of the festival, Music Museum of Nepal, announced a call for submission for films on Sunday. As per the announcement, the films need to be submitted by July 31.
The main objective of the festival, organisers said, is to conserve and preserve Nepal’s endangered musical cultural heritage, and for research, upkeep and restoration of the Music Museum of Nepal.
The festival will feature both short films (with running time up to 30 minutes) and feature-length films (up to 90 minutes); the featured films will be in Nepali and English and films in languages other than the two will have English subtitles.
Moreover, “Awards will be presented for the best film entries in the long and short film categories. In addition there may be other awards such as a student filmmaker’s award. A special conservation award may be presented to a film that provides good documentation of rare and/or endangered music cultures,” reads a note issued by the organisers.
The 2017 edition of the festival saw films from countries such as Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the US and India, among others. Alongside film screenings, last year’s event also saw several panel discussions focusing on issues such as the many traditional practices prevalent around Nepal and their relation to traditional music.
During a discussion titled ‘Folk music and performance: Evaluating our inheritance and ensuring a lasting bequest’, Manohar Lamichhane, member of Nepal Lokbarta Parisad, presented a paper that provided an argument for how the Dhyangro, a leathered drum, became an indispensable part of shamanistic rituals.
“It is an essential part of birth and death rituals in several districts in the western and far western regions of Nepal,” reads a part of Lamichhane’s paper, “There needs to be more scholarly work exploring why shamanism is still a prevalent practice in those regions.”
Likewise, Sagar Kafle presented a paper on the musical culture that surrounds the use of Khaijadi and Mujira in western districts such as Syangja, Kaski, Parbat, and Palpa. “The practice of Bhajan-singing is dwindling in several areas. Previously, people spent all night singing Bhajans. Today, the practice hardly continues for more than three hours,” a portion of Kafle’s paper read.
The organisers are yet to unveil a detailed plan and schedule for this year’s event, which will take place from November 22-24.