Interview with Sesino Yhoshü, documentary filmmaker

How did you get interested in filmmaking?  

As a child in Kohima, I did not have access to any cinema halls or much art. When I was around 10 years old, I remember one of my uncles bought my family a television, and I was so fascinated. I would come back running from school to watch certain programs. By the time I was in high school, I knew that I wanted to work in television, so I decided I wanted to be an international correspondent. 

When I was looking for journalism colleges, I learned about St Anthony’s College in Shillong, where I attended the mass communication course. In my journalism classes, I quickly realized that when the camera fixed on me, I would freeze, so my dreams of being an international correspondent went down the drain. Then I found out about all of the critical work happening behind the scenes, and that was what ushered me into production.  

After I received my bachelors in mass communications and video production, I studied electronic cinematography at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. At that time, all of my classmates were going to cities like Mumbai, which was the hot spot for films and anything to do with media. I have always wanted to come back home and contribute in whatever way I could, so I made the choice to come back to Kohima. I later decided to go to the UK to get my masters focusing on documentary filmmaking. I then came back to Kohima, fell in love, got married, and had a son. 

As a young mother in 2014, I could no longer travel as much as I wanted or disappear for weeks. I wondered how I could still make films, take care of my baby, and keep my family together. That’s when my production company TakeOne was conceived.

With TakeOne, we now have experts in every field, including audio engineers, cinematographers, scriptwriters, and editors. I wanted to nurture and train people, and together we could produce films and tell our stories through films. 

For me, after studying cinema, the way I saw things in Kohima – the mountains, the valleys, and colors – everything had changed. When I came back to Kohima, the industry was so small. Now, almost 20 years later, I see the arts sprouting everywhere and so many people doing video production, films, and music videos. I think many younger artists now realize the importance of understanding where we come from, of preserving our arts and culture, and supporting each other locally. I am so grateful that I got to witness this transition for myself, and it was so beautiful to see. 

You’ve been working on recording the testimonies from the Battle of Kohima, with the support of SPF and The Nippon Foundation, along with your team at TakeOne. How did you become interested in this project, and how did you come to work with SPF? 

The first production journey with SPF started when I heard that the foundation had invited Niketu Iralu to come to Japan and wanted someone to film the journey. Niketu has been doing so much for the Nagas, because we’ve had years of conflict not just with India, but within ourselves. He believes in something called “the still small voice,” which is the voice in you, your conscience. He encourages people to listen to each other. In fact, his house is called “Kerünyüki,” which means house of listening.

At that time, I met Yui Nakamura from SPF’s Asia and Middle East Program, and TakeOne came on board with the support of SPF to produce the documentary on Niketu. Because of the pandemic, we weren’t able to have access to Niketu for a while, since he’s an elderly man and we had to be cautious.

Before the pandemic, he was planning to travel to Assam and to Manipur for some dialogues, but those journeys never happened. We’re waiting for something like that to happen in his schedule so that we can complete this film.