IE : Homeless and underprivileged childrens real life through reel-life : Nov 13,2007

IE : Homeless and underprivileged childrens real life through reel-life : Nov 13,2007

Homeless and underprivileged childrens real life through reel-life
Shveta Vashist Gaur

Posted online: Tuesday , November 13, 2007 at 12:00:00
Updated: Monday , November 12, 2007 at 10:45:36
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Pune, November 12 IT is their way of putting across their point and their way of telling their stories. Around 50 homeless and underprivileged children between the age group of 12 and 16 from across the country, have canned their real life experiences that will be showcased during Childs Eye, a four-day Childrens Film Festival, organised by Plan India, a Delhi-based NGO. The festival will be held at the National Archives, Pune from November 15 to 18.

The event, put together by the Ashay Film Club, has been initiated by Arti Kirloskar who has been actively helping Plan India in its projects. I went to Mumbai to watch these films and when I saw them, I was sure that the urbane, busy population of Pune needed an eye opener. Specially because these films are raw and bare and that is what makes this festival very different from any other film festival. Also because November 14 is Childrens Day and November 20 is International Childrens Day, I thought the time in between would be ideal, says Kirloskar.

So be it the 16 minutes film, Bonded Generation, that talks about children being the bonded labourers or the 13 minutes film, Victims of Garbage Dumps that tells a story of Rabia, an eight-year-old girl who goes through poverty, illness and deprivation while sorting garbage at Delhis largest garbage dump, all the 15 movies reflect the desolation these children experience in real life. This global organisation spread worldwide is working in 62 countries presently and has been working in India with its projects spread in around 12 states for the last 28 years. We work for advocacy for right to identity, education and even survival. We came up with this idea in 2000 and since then we have regularly been helping children make films, says Bhagyashree Dengle, the executive director of this NGO. Children were put through a 20 days workshop program that Delhi based filmmaker Shonu Chandra took to teach these children the basic nuances of filmmaking.

And since 2000, 50 such workshops have been held time and again for different batches of children. After the workshop, these children are divided into groups of 10 and they further divide their jobs according to their area of interest. In fact, these films have also received One World Media Award and were the first Indian entries to win the award. One World, a 16 minutes film documents the same journey of the four young filmmakers to London to receive One World Special Achievement Award for their project Children Have Something to Say.

The schedule of these films has been divided into three slots – street and working children, struggle for life and HIV/AIDS and adolescent issues. Besides screenings, regular panel discussions on relevant topics like Street and working children: Towards positive action on November 15 and Adolescents and HIV: The role of education on November 18 will also be held where Rati Forbes, Police Commissioner Jayant Umranikar, Shankar Chaudhary from UNESCO and filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor are expected to be present. The media partners for the event is The Indian Express.

Publication : IE; Section : Mumbai; Pg : 5; Date : 14/11/07