Shankar Borua shooting for his documentary at a Naga rebel camp

Guwahati, Nov. 17: Assamese filmmaker Shankar Borua will screen his latest documentary before the people who are the actual “heroes” of If God Be With Us, in Kohima on December 10. It will be the first screening of the film, based on the Naga movement, in the country.

The date chosen for the event is December 10, observed world-wide as Human Rights Day. Borua, given the label “angry young man” of Indian cinema after his critically acclaimed first venture, Angst at Large, said the date was important “in the context of my film”. “Of course, there is no need to say again that there has been largescale violation of human rights during the long occupation of the Nagas’ land,” he told The Telegraph over phone from Mumbai today.

Borua had been invited to screen his documentary in Kohima by the Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights, which has been championing the cause of the Naga insurgent outfits. Mahesh Mathai of Bhopal Express fame will accompany him to Kohima.

Bhopal Express was set against the backdrop of the Bhopal gas disaster, while If God Be With Us was produced by Mathai’s Highlight Films.

The 33-year-old Borua, who makes no attempt to hide his sympathy for the Naga cause, said If God Be With Us was “an attempt to understand the Nagas’ aspiration to live as a free people”.

The promo for the documentary makes a strong comment on the Centre’s attitude towards the Naga people. “At the height of the (Indo-Naga) conflict in the Fifties, the government of India, through the Indian army, indulged in widespread abuse, which, surprisingly, went unreported in the international media. Representations were made to the United Nations, which also chose to remain silent. If God Be With Us is a tribute to the Naga resistance,” it says.

The documentary was premiered in May at the Blinding Lights Theatre in Vancouver, Canada. Borua travelled extensively to “all Naga-inhabited areas” and spent time with militants at their camps while shooting the documentary.

Borua, who calls himself the “Assamese storyteller”, shot into the limelight with Angst at Large, which dealt with militancy in Assam. A critic had described the movie as a “delightfully fresh experience”.

Borua’s life is as colourful and diverse as his films — he shunned a nine-to-five job despite a brilliant academic career to become a pig-farmer, a waiter and, finally, a filmmaker. But like films, Borua’s obsession with pigs continues, which explains his e-mail ID gahori. Gahori, in Assamese, is a pig.