Before coming to the gist of today’s post, let me share with you a latest attempt made by me in the field of film making. It is a short film, (or at least I call it so), made using the high definition facility of my point and shoot camera, with artistic help of the friends and people around me. The short film titled ‘The Movie’ is the one you see below. It’s about film making actually. Though made in my mother tongue Malayalam, I have given subtitles in order to communicate with the non-Malayalam speaking blogging buddies.
Okey, after completing the works of the film, during the weekend, I went to Thrissur, a neighboring district, to attend a film festival, where you could see so many wonderful films – feature length ones, short films, and documentaries – from all across the world. When I reached the film festival venue after a one and a half hour long train journey, an open forum was happening in the campus of the theatre. I saw so many delegates including foreign people with cheer and vigour participating in the open forum by letting on their views about contemporary cinema.
But what I noticed more was a woman with a movie camera covering the entire proceedings. The reason why I noticed her was the fact that film making and camera operating is a less attempted area by women in my conservative Kerala (India in wider perspective) . The camera woman, called Lakshmamma, is an illiterate one, hailing from some rural areas of Kerala’s neighbouring state Karnataka. But the fascinating fact is that with her poor academic background, and little knowledge in film making, she had so far directed some 100 documentaries. This is the picture of Lakshmamma busy with her job, that I shot using my camera.
While travelling back to Cochin after watching one or two films, I chanced to notice another woman character at the railway station. She was a police woman, but more exactly the term police girl would have been apt for her. We have seen so many muscular police women. But, this one was actually a girl. In her khakhi uniforms, she looked a little more determined than any other girls.
So, I hope you have seen the short film made by me. I acted the lead role, though not appearing most of the time (a winking smiley). I will dedicate another post for this film, to detail about its making and themes, but the choice of such a post will definitely be based on the feedback from the readers cum spectators.