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Making an impact
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Students capture human emotions in documentaries shot on a shoestring budget
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REALITY SHOW: Scenes from December 26 and Oru Thuli. Pics: K. Ananthan.
SOMETIMES, A single word makes a greater impact than reams of prose. That's the case with visuals too. A single frame that celebrates silence ends up being more effective than one filled with a cacophony of sounds. Satish, a student of Mass Communication at the PSG College of Arts and Science, seems to have learnt that lesson early. His short film `Oru Thuli' on child labour, is devoid of dialogue. Strains of Illayaraja's music set the mood for the documentary, which is high on shock value.
Among the best
His film was one of the seven chosen to be screened at Sathyam Cinemas, Chennai, as part of the Gateway Awards, held recently by the Society of Media Sciences, College of Engineering, Guindy, in Chennai.
`Oru Thuli' is a simple, yet poignant film, and devoid of any frills that might draw a viewer away from the subject on hand. As for technical wizardry, it has been toned down no end. All the camera does is zoom in and zoom out following the life of a young boy wearing a khaki trouser. He wakes up like any other boy, brushes his teeth, combs his hair and gets ready. But, to go where? Reach his spot below a tree and await customers who seek him to polish their shoes. That was an ending no one expected and the film scored quite a few points just based on that feature. "Instead of having dialogues on child labour, I let the visuals speak for themselves," says Satish.
Effective screenplay
His friend in M.Sc. Electronic Media, Saravanan, won first place for his screenplay for `December 26', a film talking about the tsunami and the bonding that it brings about. Instead of talking about death and devastation, he chose to talk on adoption, with a twist.
A devout Muslim adopts a Brahmin boy and arranges for his sacred thread ceremony. "I got the idea after hearing news reports on television on children rendered orphan by the
tsunami and the need to adopt them. I wanted to show something different and looked at the importance of humaneness," says Saravanan.
Satish and Saravanan in the college studio. Pics: K. Ananthan.
His film was shot in three days in Erode and on a shoestring budget. His uncle played the grandfather and his nephew the kid. The acting was amateurish but the strength of the script won him the award. One good scene was where garments of the deceased float past the old man when he walks on the beach that once was searching for his relatives.
It was very effective and managed to convey the futility of searching for survivors.
Graphic content
Another film that is likely to go places is Sushma Krishnamurty's on female infanticide.
The film can put off some people for its graphic content, but it helps shake people out of their stupor.
The filmmaker had tied up with journalists to be able to capture the subject in all its gory detail.
When the last frame was played, you could only hear sniffles in the hall.
Despite all these advances, one aspect plaguing documentary filmmakers in the city is the non-availability of trained actors — people who can make or break a script.
SUBHA J RAO
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