Best cinematographer award for Maipak

Imphal, Febuary 12: Irom Maioak of Manipur who won the Hest Cinematographer Award in the 49th National Film Awards under the Best Non-film category for the year 2001 for a documentary "The Monpas of Arunachal Pradesh" will be presented the award to him by the President of India in a glittering function at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on February 13 (Thursday), sources here said on Wednesday. The documentary English film is exploring the vibrant rites and rituals of the Monpa tribe, the largest Buddhist tribe of Tawang in the western most district of Arunachal Pradesh bordering Bhutan and Tibet. The award carries a citation and a cash prize of Rs 5,000 each. The cameraman of the prize winning film from the north eastern states, Irom Maipak is the first Manipuri to bag the best cinematography award. Maipak did a wonderful job during the weeklong filming beaming Aribam Syam Sharma, noted film director from Manipur said after his film won 2 awards in the 49th National Film Festival 2001. Though, Maipak had filmed innumerable video films and 16 mm films, for 35 mm films the cameraman needs to be extremely cautious and confident as films are costly. It was Maipak's first big screen film which he has won such a coveted award. It is indeed an achievement for the young cameraman as the filming was done at Tawang at Arunachal Pradesh and the Buddhist rituals were filmed in an extraordinary fashion. It took a week in filming a 20 minute non feature film 'The Monpas of Arunachal Pradesh? to make fascinating style of framing under uncontrolled situations, Sharma said. The festival was organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in New Delhi last year. With security two awards, so far, 12th awards are to his credit of which five were for his feature films and 7 for non-feature. Sharma captured the coveted Rajat Kamal Award 2001 for his documentary film 'The Monpas of Arunachal Pradesh' as the best anthropological/ethnographic film. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 10000 and a citation. The film was produced by the National Film Division. The film has also been selected for the International Film festivals 2002 in the Indian Panorama section to be held in October last year. The film is Shyam's first venture on themes from outside the state.