Manipur’s film on all-girls’ football club wins best documentary award in Mumbai fest

Critically acclaimed filmmaker Meena Longjam’s ‘Andro Dreams’, capturing the journey of an all-girls football club from Andro, a remote town in Manipur’s Imphal East district, has won the best documentary award at the eighth edition of the Jagran Film Festival in Mumbai.

In a glittering ceremony held in Mumbai on Sunday, Meena, a doctorate holder in mass communication, bagged the prestigious award.

Describing Meena’s “win” as another feature on Manipuri Cinema, Manipur State Film Development Society (MSFDS), Secretary Sunzu Bachaspatimayum congratulated Meena Longjam and her entire crew of ‘Andro Dreams’ on their achievement coming at a time when the state is battling to recover from the unprecedented ethnic strife it has witnessed since May 3.

“’Andro Dreams’ is the story of Laibi, a spirited old woman and her three-decade old all-girls’ football club battling economic challenges, patriarchal system and orthodoxy at Andro, an ancient village of northeast India,” said Meena, who is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the Manipur University of Culture, heading the Department of Culture Studies.

Her feat came a couple of days ahead of the 69th National Film Awards ceremony to be held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi wherein two renowned Manipuri film makers - Mayanglambam Romi Meitei and Saikhom Ratan - will receive awards for their films ‘Eikhoigi Yum’ (Our house) and ‘Beyond Blast’ respectively.

In her decade-long career as a filmmaker, Meena has won many awards, and the most prominent one is her 2015 win for the documentary film ‘Auto driver’, which portrayed the struggles of Imphal’s first female auto rickshaw driver. Her films are focused on women empowerment as her second documentary ‘Achoubi in Love’, which has travelled to over 30 national and international film festivals, documents her protagonist Achoubi’s fight to save the indigenous Meitei Sagol ponies – ponies that gave rise to the sport of polo.