Even as curtains come down on the International Film Festival of Kerala today, the curtain will go up for the second edition of ‘Qisa 2013’, Technopark’s popular short film fete. This time 27 short films made by IT professionals who work in the various companies on campus, have made the cut for the fete on December 14. The filmmaking trend, which was more or less kicked off in Technopark a few years ago by short films such as Bijoy P.I.’s The Myth and Basil Joseph’s Priyamvada Katharayano? , is still going strong on campus, it seems. Some of these filmmakers such as Basil and Bijoy have even found a foothold in the film industry thanks to their short films.
Says techie Rajeev Krishnan, secretary of Prathidhwani, organisers of the fete: “When we initially came up with the idea for a short film fete – qisa means short – we did a quick survey on campus and in one go we came up with a list of some 12 amateur filmmakers. That’s when we realised that there was a wealth of filmmaking talent in Technopark, many of them just waiting for some sort of an impetus to let their creativity shine. I think that the trend for filmmaking has only increased in the past year. For example, for the first edition of Qisa we invited entries for films produced between 2010 and 2012 and we got around 21 submissions. This year, even though we limited the entry to films produced in 2012- 2013 we still got over 30 submissions.”
The organisers claim that the standard of the films submitted for Qisa 2013 has also gone up. “Last year many of the films had lots of technical defects with regards to lighting, dubbing, dialogues and the likes. This year we’re rather amazed at how much more professionally sound most of the films actually are,” says Rajeev. While most of the films are still made with friends and colleagues acting as the cast and crew, increasingly the directors seem to be seeking professional help when it comes to post-production activities such as editing and sound. Suraj Nair, for example, whose Echo is being screened at Qisa, had hired professionals for the film’s sound mixing and background score. “My film plays with the aspect of sound and thus needed a professional touch.”
The themes for the shorts are varied but underlying in many of them, if not all of them, are social messages. “We techies are part of the same social fabric and are not an isolated community as many people perceive us to be. As such our films also reflect the socio-cultural milieu,” says Anuraj, an employee of PIT Solutions. His short film Candle traces a conversation between two strangers who find themselves cut off from society. Similarly, Manu S. Kumar’s A Braille Letter is about the controversy regarding the proposed airport at Aranmula. “It’s is about a visually challenged villager’s perception of the issue and how she voices her fears on the impending displacement,” says Manu. Incidentally, the techie who works for Technopark’s biggest MNC, won top prize at last year’s Qisa for the short Jalam , his first ever reel experiment. “I’ve always wanted to make movies,” he says.
So does Suraj, who has thus far made 11 short films. “Five to 10 years down the line I want to turn professional filmmaker. Right now I am content to think small and learn as much about the filmmaking process as I can,” says Suraj. His Echo “tries to show that emotions also have echoes; fear reflects fear, joy reflects joy and so on.” Another of his films, Bhramanam , is also being screened at the fete. Shial Narayan’s Upekshith , meanwhile, is a docu-fiction, inspired by a CSR initiative at a local orphanage and deals with issues related to abandonment of children.
What then draws the techies to filmmaking as a medium to express their thoughts? Anuraj says that it is because of the easy availability of technology and accessibility of platforms such as YouTube to showcase your works. “I’ve found filmmaking to be a stress relief,” he says. Adds Suraj: “Why not movies? Admittedly, being a techie you are saturated with work. But that also prompts us to do something different in our free time. Actually, being a techie makes it easier to spend time on our hobbies because most of us have weekends free.”
