The first international Tribal Animation Film Festival in the Northeast will be a celebration of the vitality and dynamism of traditional storytelling captured through animation.

The three-day festival will be held at the North Eastern Hill University (Nehu) here from March 1.

Artists, storytellers and filmmakers from indigenous communities across the world will take part in the event to share their films and experiences and joining them will be specialists of anthropology, art and the media.

For the traditional communities of the Northeast, folklore was the medium through which they learnt their history, settled arguments and made sense of the world. Storytelling was a community activity and the stories that were passed down from generation to generation enabled both the narrator and the listener to jointly engage in a creative process.

The festival aims to create an engaging forum for filmmakers from the Northeast and from indigenous communities to present their work and forge links with professional collaborators and media enthusiasts from across the country and the world.

Festival coordinator Tara Douglas, a trustee of the Trust for Tribal Art Culture and Knowledge, who collaborated on the Tales of the Tribes (a series of short animated stories from folk communities), said, “It became a two-way learning process: the animators shared their experience of the technical processes of creating animation and the knowledge and wisdom that is inherently embedded in the local stories about community and environment. It was an enriching journey for all.”

During the three days, there will be screenings, workshops and panel discussions and also an exhibition of historical photographs of the region.

International directors like native American filmmakers Joseph Erb and Victor Masayesva, indigenous filmmakers Amanda Strong and Banchi Hanuse from Canada, Ezra Wube from Ethiopia, Jean Michel Kibushi from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Pritt Tender from Estonia have sent their films for the event. From the Russian Arctic comes How Nyanchedo Myniku Taught Man to Fly by Mikhael Korobov and from Australia, the award-winning animated series The Dreaming, based on Australian aboriginal storytelling.

Scottish director Leslie Mackenzie will share insights about her work to adapt Gaelic folklore for animation in workshops with young people in her country. Experimental films by independent filmmakers Joan Ashworth, Emma Calder, Christopher Eales and Benjamin Fox from the UK will extend the boundaries of the medium.

The festival is jointly organised by the department of anthropology of Nehu and the Trust for Tribal Art Culture and Knowledge (Delhi) and supported by the North Eastern Council (NEC).