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MIFF pays homage to Manipur’s ace cinematographer Irom Maipak
Irom Maipak, who died during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, is Manipur’s only national award-winning cinematographer.
IMPHAL: The 17th Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short Fiction and Animation films (MIFF-2022) on Wednesday paid homage to Manipur’s ace cinematographer Irom Maipak, who died during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.
Irom Maipak (August 20, 1967–May 20, 2021) is Manipur’s only national award-winning cinematographer and the founding president of the All Manipur Cinematographers Association.
MIFF was opened on Sunday with ‘Meiram’ (fireline), a Manipuri documentary film by James Khangembam.
“This is the first time that homage is given to a Manipuri film personality in an international film festival. We are really grateful to MIFF and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting,” said prominent director and filmmaker of Manipur, Haobam Pabankumar. “He was one of the best documentary cinematographers of the country and I was lucky to be associated with him. He shot almost all my doc films. He was also a very good human being,” he added.
Pabankumar along with his colleague and filmmaker Ronel Haobam are presently attending MIFF, which is scheduled to continue till June 4 in Mumbai.
54-year-old Maipak had won the National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film Cinematography in the non-feature section for the 2001 film, The Monpas of Arunachal Pradesh, at the 49th National Film Awards held in 2002.
“For his fascinating style of framing under uncontrolled situations,” said the citation for the National Award. He also won the Navroze Contractor Award for the Best Documentary Cinematography in the 8th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala 2015 for the film Phum Shang (meaning floating biomass hut).
Altogether eight documentary films from Manipur will be screened at MIFF-2022, one of the biggest documentary film festivals in the world organised by the Films Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.
The eight documentary films are Haobam Paban Kumar’s Pabung Syam, Phum Shang, 50 Years of Manipuri Cinema, Borun Thokchom’s I Rise, James Khangembam’s Meiram-The Fireline, Maibam Amarjeet Singh’s Highways of Life, Aribam Syam Sharma’s The Monpas of Arunachal Pradesh and Ronel Haobam’s Thang-Ta, according to the Manipur Film Society.
