The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Tsunami experience on celluloid

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Tsunami experience on celluloid

Staff Reporter

The film explores disaster from children's perspective "Tsunami-Before and After" explores the natural disaster from the children's perspective From direction and production to sound recording and anchoring the show, the children performed all the roles with some guidance and technical help.

CHENNAI: : Thirteen-year-old Shobanath, hailing from a tsunami-affected hamlet, speaks with a maturity that is rare in someone so young. The anguish in him after he saw his little village ravaged by the tsunami has slowly been replaced by hope and quiet confidence.

Shobanath's experiences, common to several tsunami-affected children, have been made into a documentary titled "Tsunami-Before and After." The 18-minute film has been made by children.

The idea of a documentary from the children's perspective was mooted by Plan, a non-governmental organisation in association with Real, a grassroots organisation working in the tsunami-affected villages.

Six children — Shobanath, Padma, Roja, Monisha, Arivazhagan and Packya — showed interest in making a documentary film.

They were from Kallar and Chandrapadi, two of the worst-affected hamlets in Nagapattinam district.

At a media screening of the film on Friday, child-director Shobanath said: "When we started the workshop before shooting for the film, my parents asked me why I was wasting time. Later, when they saw me with the camera they were impressed that I could handle such equipment." After the tsunami, relief work often tended to overlook children's issues.

The film showed how developing a child-friendly toilet or creating a play area for them could contribute to a child's comfort. The film team also dealt with adult issues: employment, livelihood, soil salinity and opportunities for women.

"I have been working with children's film workshops for a long time but what I noticed with this team was that the kids seem to have grown up all of a sudden. They had to cope with a big tragedy and emerge strong," said Govind Nihalani, film-maker, who helped with the workshop.

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