FEMALE FIRST IN THE NORTHEAST

On March 14, 2026, we raised an Open Call particularly for girls, women and Allies in Guwahati, Assam, to explore Female First stories through film screenings, illustrations, photography, animation and a discussion after.

What tales do the Seven Sisters want to tell in 2026? And in what tongue does She want to speak?

We wanted women to bring their own work to share on this open platform or simply observe and get inspired by others. A Shout Out to storytellers creatively exploring textile, food culture, socially-oriented community engagement, sound design, film, animation, illustration, poetry, Zines, fine art, pottery, floristry, agriculture, education or traditional crafts from ANYWHERE in the NorthEast. 

GATIKA was super proud to associate with the Gauhati Cine Club to screen films and animation by Women Filmmakers at the Pragiyoti ITA Centre for Performing Arts, Machkhowa, right at the banks of the gorgeous river Brahmaputra. 

Gauhati Cine Club is one of the oldest and most prestigious film societies in Northeast India. It was founded by legendary singer, songwriter and filmmaker Dr. Bhupen Hazarika in 1965, along with a handful of film lovers, critics, and writers. It was formed 3 years after the formation of the first film society of North East India ‘The Shillong Film Society’, founded by Padum Barua, Md. Sadullah and a legion of film enthusiasts. The main objective of the society is to create awareness in the society about cinema as a serious art and to form an environment for serious discourse and debate in the cinematic and intellectual world.

We are immensely grateful to all who came to witness and share stories at our absolutely power punch of a gathering on March 14, 2026 at Guwahati.

We were truly stumped by the diversity of ages and voices that put in the effort to land up inspite of the rain and streets flooded, much love to our team at GATIKA and the Gauhati Cine Club for their swift ninja moves all through production! 

We started the evening by screening a short film by Iranian director and screenwriter Farnoosh Samadi in solidarity with the ongoing war raging around us at this current moment. 

If women and girls had it tough in Iran before this war, we can only imagine how hard it must have become for them today. Her film ‘Gaze’ set the tone for the evening’s show flow. We had writers, researchers, bakers, apparel boutique store owners, filmmakers, engineers, architects, independent magazine editors, sociologists, AI educators, journalists, ad filmmakers, govt service employees and hard core cinephiles in our midst and as you can imagine, the conversations were brilliantly dynamic! Discussions kicked off after each film screened. Here’s a closer look at our audience while deep in discourse, we wound up by 10 PM.

BTS / Had a blast recce ing Guwahati for venues, printers and all the rest of the thaam-jhaam in a whirlwind of 3 days for our gig last week! The streets were flooded with flash rains (and a hailstorm in the night), the electricity kept tripping, we even had to deal with some fun politicians Booking-over-our-Booking of a film screening venue at the last minute! All challenging entities inspired us to deliver even better actually, what would we do without you :D. We managed to plaster our printed fliers outside restaurants and bars in the hood & made a lot of friends while at it 🙂

Somehow, it was very reassuring to see the legendary Lachit Borphukan and his bronze comrades point in the direction of our venue auditorium everyday from across the busy street from his post on the river, what an inspiring location. 

Also, I happened to live up on a hill right next to Zubeen Garg’s house, got used to going to his patch to see the Brahmaputra from His side every morning. So many fans kept leaving new flower offerings, notes and cut-outs each day, it made me feel warm.

Very happy to report that our stickers got mostly all Sold Out right at our venue :). If you want any of the last few of them, catch us at the QR code. Cool to see a lot of you register even after the gig.I know why. We have work to do! The form is still open. Stay tuned & register.

Waah! Fastest selling Sticker on the block. This Soh Niamtra, Khasi Mandarin women’s jam is going places! Every sticker has its story x)🖤

Brilliant how endemic fruit, vegetables, gathered greens, baking, ethnobotany, and natural medicine made their way organically into the discussions with our super tuned-in audience in Guwahati during screenings. Who needs branded labels when you can gather and grow! Look at the times we live in, we’ve run out of cooking gas already, what a red flag. May our unique memory- based taste and smell never be homogenised