The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Taking their success stories to the world

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Sunday, May 25, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Taking their success stories to the world

Special Correspondent

Group of illiterate women showcase their filmmaking prowess in Germany

AT WORK: Community filmmakers in action.

HYDERABAD: For these illiterate women, a chance to showcase their work as filmmakers at a forum in Bonn, Germany, was the ultimate.

Nine women trained in videography by Deccan Development Society (DDS) were brought together as Community Media Trust.

Apart from making them comfortable at handling a camera, the exposure turned them into effective communicators, vocally too.

DDS has been working with about 5,000 women organised into 80 ‘sanghams’, mostly illiterate and marginalised, in Medak district. Masanagari Narsamma, Begari Laxmamma and Sooremma represented DDS as filmmakers at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity: Rural images and Voices on food sovereignty in South India on May 19. A multimedia publication containing 12 of their videos and their synopses was released there and the proud women basked in the glory of having the spotlight on them.

The women were introduced by DDS director P.V. Satheesh to a select gathering on Saturday.

It comprised members of Network of Women in Media - India, and faculty members from University of Hyderabad’s School of Social Sciences and Sarojini Naidu School of Performing Arts, Fine Arts & Communication.

The audience reaction was simply, ‘humbling’ while the three could not stop talking on how they were ‘personally empowered’ and could use the powerful electronic medium to convey their success stories to the world.

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