Titled "Songs to Live By", it is directed by Tarun Bhartiya. The director will join via Skype for a brief intro and a discussion after the screening.
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What makes folk music? Is it something frozen and event friendly? Is it still made in the fields to the bump and grind of physical labour? We are in Umpohwin, a Bhoi village on the Assam – Meghalaya Border in India. Here, Bah Hos Shadap & his friends are threshing their paddy. Threshing in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills involves free and voluntary exchange of labour and today Hos Shadap's paddy field is the recipient of that voluntary exchange.
As the paddy is pounded, a rhythm emerges inviting a song. Albinus Kharkongor, Umpohwin's master of rhyme and verse, steps in and takes over. The simple rhythm belies the vast topical territory that Albinus sings. The village's existing corpus of lyrical anecdotes get taken over by his irreverent wit and improvisation. Longings are cloaked, oppressors are made fun of, dinner is slipped through clumsy fingers and edible roots makes one fart. The language swings from the local dialect to pidgin to one that is plainly imagined.
Hos Shadap and Albinus Kharkongor filter a kind of history through their songs that will remain marginal to the canon of Khasi tribal culture.
2. Love Songs of Sotjak and Ringjeng (17 mins)
In the makeshift bamboo house in their shifting cultivation field, A.chik couple Ringjeng T. Marak and Sotjak Ch. Sangma of Selbalgre, Garo Hills celebrate their 45 years of life together with songs and music.
3. Escaping Museums - Lak(h)empong Diaries (29 mins)
Are folk dances only about tourist festivals and Indian Republic and Independence Day celebrations? Are folk dances subservient to classical forms? Are border cultures loose bricks in the ethnic purity construct of the majority? In Umtlieh, in the disputed territories of Assam & Meghalaya of India, people of the multi ethnic ancient state of Nongtung come together for their annual post harvest dance called Shad Lakhempong. Is it a sacred dance or just about picking up your future mate? Debates continue as people sing their ribald dance music and songs of stolen nights together.
4. Songs & Secrets in Sadolpara (20 mins)
Sadolpara, Garo Hills, India, one of the few villages which still practise the old A.chik Songsarek faith. Bheemsingh is a recent convert to Christianity and yet he holds on to the traditional chants, rituals and stories. He sings while weaving his baskets and he sings while meeting and drinking with his friends in the weekly market.
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