Scene 1: A cobbler sits by the street-side, mending footwear all day.
Scene 2: His daughter walks barefooted, steps on a thorn and hurts herself.
This is from a short film titled ‘ Seruppu ’, directed by a 12th grade student K. Gopal.
“The film touches on the heart wrenching fact that a cobbler who mends footwear for others couldn’t afford to buy his daughter a pair of slippers,” says Gopal, who took part in a three-day short-film making workshop for underprivileged children by Sakthi-Vidyal. “I never thought even in my wildest dream that I would one day wear the director’s hat,” he says.
The workshop facilitated by documentary filmmaker L. Joe Prakash provided a group of 25 children the opportunity to learn the art. Armed with high definition cameras and a telling story, the bunch went around shooting their dreams. They came out with eight short films on different topics including Pantu Sattai directed by R. Praveen, Kayangal (R. Bagam Priya), Asaivam and Kaakkai Siraginile (V. Surya Narayanan), Kanneer Kaditham (A. Durga), Balloon (S. Sonai Muthu) and Nasamanom (M. Muneeswaran).
The films reflected the pathetic state of marginalised communities and how the society treats them.
“Most of the children are from disadvantaged backgrounds, some are also victims of abuse in their schools and homes. Hence, school dropout rate is very high. To stem the rot, we tried to channelize the skills of these kids in proper direction for which movie has become an effective tool. Through which we have been trying to catch their attention and it is showing good results,” says C. Jim Jesudoss, founder director, Sakthi-Vidiyal, an NGO for promotion and protection of child rights.
Most of them are members of the Nizhal Thirai Arangam (Movie Club) of the NGO. Regular attendance to the monthly screenings was one of the prerequisites for selection to the workshop.
“We chose movies as a tool as these children are crazy about films. Initially it was difficult to draw their attention to alternative and world cinema. But gradually we were able to cultivate the habit of watching good movies. In all we have 10 screenings a year and a one-day short film festival. From unruly spectators they have now developed a taste for good movies. They discuss about a film and delve deep into it,” says Jim.
The suggestion for the workshop came at an annual year planning meet. “Inspired by the short films I saw here, I wanted to do a film on my own and started writing a script. Only then I realised that it needs special training to write the screenplay and handle the camera,” says Praveen.
Though Sakthi-Vidiyal has been regularly organising workshops on street theatre and folk arts, one on media was out of their purview for it involved a lot of money. “We knew pretty well it was a costly affair. Since the suggestion came from our children, we made it into a reality. We zeroed in on Joe Prakash, who had already worked with us for a video song on Child Line,” says Jim.
The participants were initially asked to come out with a one-liner and based on the story, the script was developed. Most of stories were based on real-life incidents.
“I just taught them the basics of photography and videography. I convinced them that one can shoot a film even with a mobile phone camera. I also briefed them what constitutes a frame and made them understand that more than the use of technology the success of the film depends on how one develops the plot from the knot,” says Joe Prakash.
Brimming with a never-ending passion to make it big in life, these children have found a new avenue to express themselves better.
