Braving ULFA, threats to life

Thiruvananthapuram: Delegates at IFFK would know Parthajit Baruah, as an author who wrote on filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan. However the FTII graduate is also a documentary filmmaker. The first of his two documentaries, ‘The Dhemaji Tragedy’, is about a bombing on August 15, 2004, by Assamese militant group United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) at Dhemaji parade ground.  

The subject in itself spelt trouble, as ULFA was feared. He approached various people for funding but got rejected each time. He then started to collect funds from friends. Thw event, according to Baruah, was a turning point in ULFA’s history as it killed 13 innocent people of which 10 were children. “Until that time, many believed ULFA to be a good force which was fighting for the people. This incident destroyed their image,” says Baruah.

The film revisits the families of parents who lost their children. “The parents were broken. When they would hear names of ULFA members, they would cry out, 'they are not insurgents, they are terrorists',” he says. Baruah says that there has been several calls to dissuade him from pursuing the project, as ULFA felt his work would damage their image. Once ULFA members came to the hotel where he was staying with his crew. “I told them that this documentary is not making a point for or against the ULFA,” he says.

There were life threats too. Baruah had replied, once, “If you want to kill me, I don’t mind being the 14th person.” Perhaps, a tougher thing to do while making the film was to get the parents to open up. The film won awards at the Delhi International Film Festival, the Film-North East Film Festival 2016, the 4th Kolkata Short International Film Festival 2015 and the 4th Delhi International Short Film Festival.