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At the time this award was announced, Leena was at the Berlinale Film Festival (February 6 to 16). She was screening the film at the festival, which she got to attend by dint of a Visiting Scholar Program offered by the Foreign Federal Office of Germany and the Goethe Institute. The MIFF award is one of many that have come “Goddesses”’ way. Most notable is a jury award at John Abraham National Awards Competition /SIGNS 2007 in Kerala. The film has been nominated for the Horizon Award at the Munich International Film Festival, to be held in May. “Goddesses”, which is the first Tamil docu-film to win a Golden Conch, tells the stories of three women who have broken male bastions. For a living, Krishnaveni digs graves, Lakshmi sings elegies at funerals and Setharaku fishes braving sea waves. The film throws a new searchlight on what it means to be a woman and to swim against the tide. In portraying the lives of a disadvantaged section, Leena was once again playing to her strength.

There is a strong streak of social activism in Leena and her 10 documentary films (most of them in Tamil with English subtitles) grapple with various social issues. “Mathamma” is about girl children, who are dedicated to a deity and ultimately end up as sex workers, “Parai” is about untouchability, “Bali Peedam” is about child marriage, “Holes In The Bucket” is about water scarcity, artificially created and “Waves After Waves” is about therapy for Tsunami-affected children through art.

It appears that Leena can’t make a film without touching upon somebody’s plight. She really can’t help it. From a very early age, she has been listening to discussions centred around nation-building, thanks to a family in which almost everyone is committed to the Left movement. “Magazines and films dealing with social-political issues have never been out of supply at home,” says Leena. When a kid skims through the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) while her peers are looking out for the next edition of Chandamama, there is clearly an activist in the making.

Even before she began to don the filmmaker’s hat, Leena used to patronise street theatre. She believes it is a vehicle to reach the unlettered. Leena is also for participatory film-making. This means she takes her films to the people and asks them to react to it. In this effort and to understand less highlighted issues, she has visited over 2,000 villages. Leena’s documentaries are not her source of income. She keeps her passion and profession in two tightly closed compartments, even though they spring from the same field. She earns her money as a television producer, anchor, video jockey and actor.

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