Don Bosco Film Shoot Covers Seven States
By:C.M. Paul, Category: General, Posted on:2011-03-21 07:51:48
 DIMPAUR - Two award winning film makers will begin shoot of a docufilm in northeast India, 26 March to 6 April, 2011. The seven member film crew will cover seven states of northeast India (Assam, Arunachal, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura). The film entitled The HAND of Don Bosco is a homage to the pioneer Salesian missionaries on the eve of the first ever Don Bosco Relics Pilgrimage (DBRP) to northeast India.
The 28 minute film by Agartala (Tripura) based director Fr Joseph Pulinthanath is scheduled to be released on 1st May, the first day of DBRP India, at Imphal, capital of Manipur.
The northeast India film crew includes award winning director (Seasons of Love & To my Beloved Teacher) and chief cameraman, Fr Jiji Kalavanal, director of Don Bosco IMAGE, a media production and training centre at Kochi. The post production works of The Hand film too is scheduled to be done at DB Image.
Commenting on the Relic of Don Boscos right hand encased in the 5-ton casket going around the world, Guwahati province priest film director of award winning Kokborok feature films Mathia and Yarwng, Fr Pulinthanath asks, Why not mark this occasion with a film on the HAND of DB! What it did during his lifetime, and what DB continues to do in the world through the hands of his Salesians, particularly in this part of India Blessing, praying, caring, healing, working, building, comforting, supporting etc.
"It is the town [Imphal] that perhaps best signifies today the Turin of yore-like youth situation of Northeast India," ruminates the 2010 national film award winner and film director Fr Pulinthanath. His earlier film entitled "Mist & Magic" released on the occasion of Catholic Bishops Conference of India General Assembly in Guwahati last year, depicted the cultural extravaganza of the seven northeastern states.
Director of Don Bosco Institute of Management Studies Guwahati and co-producer wants the film Fr. Thomas Vattathara underscores the special relationship the region has with the saint. "The name Don Bosco is etched indelibly on the psyche of the people of northeast. It has become part of their genes. The Hand film is a tribute to Don Bosco and to the people of Northeast India."
Director of Bosco Reach-Out, Fr. Johnson Parackal, another co-producer of The Hand says he extended support to the venture thinking of the miracles Don Boscos hand has "wrought in the lives of the people of Northeast by alleviating poverty and liberating the marginalized."
Finding The Hand an apt metaphor, he adds, "Although it is the heart that desires, it is the hand that reaches out to others in love and service." He hoped the film would be a celebration of the "the marvels the Almighty has done" in this region through the hand of Don Bosco during these past almost 90 years, since 1922 when the first band of Salesians arrived.
'In fact,' letting out the story-line Pulinthanath says, "the hand of Don Bosco has not only played a vital role in ameliorating the problems of the region but has positively contributed towards the transformation of the region into a potential store-house of human resource and riches."
Fr Pulinthanath, adds, "I have another 'storyline' in mind too. It concerns the 'poor' Don Bosco who as a little boy had to work like an adult to earn money to study. God willing, the Hand film will be an occasion to right a wrong notion or two: about triumphalist narratives, self-glorification and superior viewpoints. For too long such accounts have done a disservice to DB especially in NE India."
While Don Bosco provinces of Dimapur and Guwahati are the producers of the film, director of Don Bosco Youth Centre, Itanagar (Arunachal), Fr. Cyriac Pulinthanthumalayil, is the production logistics coordinator.
For details pls contact Fr. Joseph Pulinthanath at Agartala : 9436126649
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