The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Chennai’s tryst with ‘Paper Clips’

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Saturday, Dec 20, 2008
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Chennai’s tryst with ‘Paper Clips’

Liffy Thomas

— Photo: R. Ragu

Catalyst: Children participate in an interactive programme as part of the ‘Power of One’ workshop by director Joe Fab in Chennai on Friday.

Chennai: Examination and preparation for it can wait, but Joe Fab and the screening of ‘Paper Clips’ would not. The 30-odd boys, aged between 12 and 16, from the Children’s Home knew that too well.

On Friday, Emmy-nominated director, producer and writer Joe Fab, acclaimed for the documentary film ‘Paper Clips,’ held a workshop for children who were either runaways, orphans, street children or those with a single parent at KRMMM Higher Secondary School, Adyar.

Hosted by the U.S. Consulate General, Chennai, Joe Fab’s workshop ‘Power of One’ was based on the movie, which is an inspiring story of how students in a rural town of Tennessee respond to lesson about the Holocaust, with a promise to honour every soul by collecting one paper clip each. Fab asked the participants to awaken their powers, be a citizen of the world, decide what they can do, visualise the change, take action and to stay committed.

With Sriram Ayer of NalandaWay Foundation as translator, he started the session by asking the children to give an example of the justice they want to see around them. Someone wanted to become a scientist to invest in a machine that could detect and solve all problems, another wanted to learn English so that he can go abroad and earn lot of money, and yet another wanted to find a cure for AIDS.

Through the interaction, Fab compared the children to that of Tennessee and how they could also act as citizens of change.

“Just like the children of Tennessee, you can choose to be the upstander. I need you to become an army of people who know justice can be done,” he said.

Chennai is one among the many other cities across the world where the workshop is being filmed as a follow-up to the ‘Paper Clips’ series. The filming was done in association with L.V. Prasad Film Academy.

“We never planned about filming part-II, but it just happened,” said Fab. “Next year is the 10th anniversary of the Paper Clip project and we hope to release the film.”

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