My First...

 It was in a small village of the south Indian cotton town of Warangal. I was shooting a film on the suicide deaths of agricultural workers. A larger film on the politics of hunger.

Sakubai was the character I was following. A few years ago, struggling to repay a loan of 10,000Rs (200$), her husband committed suicide by the most common method of all, consuming pesticide.  She was left to fend for herself and her two sons. The older of the two was 12 years. Sakubai worked her husband’s field and hoped that the new cotton harvest would wipe out the loan and help her start a new life.

Following a local NGO worker, we found Sakubai and thought that this feisty young woman would be perfect to tell the story from a gendered perspective. The first day we interacted with her and her sons and the next the day was the shoot. 8 am.

She was missing and so was her 12 year old son. The younger son was amused but wouldn’t tell us where her mother was, the next morning. There was a hush in the village and some people who we encountered were not forthcoming. We, including the local coordinator, were perplexed. Why this sudden reversal?! Finally we caught up with the mother and the son duo slinking away in the shadows. So what was the problem? Why this sudden change in mood? They mumbled something in Telugu. I looked at the local coordinator. He too was perplexed.  The situation was getting tense. Finally after some more mumbles and hushed conversations, I learnt that the 12 year old was upset that his mother was getting involved in some sex films (BF he said) with some city men who have come with cameras. For this 12 year old it was the only real interpretation of movies he found for himself in these circumstances. The economic and emotional hardships the family was going through must have also forced him to enter the adult world unnaturally early.

Whatever the personal journeys of this 12 year old may have been it threw us completely off our plans. If our main character was missing. So what do we do! The only way was to talk to the 12 year old and convince him. He could understand broken Hindi. I tried to walk him through the story we were trying to film with his mother. But he didn’t seem to move from his position.

The only thing left to do, was to make him a part of the shooting process and try and make him understand what we intend to do. We requested Sakubai to take us to her cotton field. I placed the camera on the tripod and framed her walking into the field. We rehearsed once. I repositioned the tripod and invited her son to now look through the viewfinder and frame his mother. Once everybody was in position, I asked her to walk and asked her son to push the record button while he was looking through.  Shot over, he cut the camera. I could see he was already shaken up by this experience. I rewound the tape and played it back for him. Eyes glued back to the viewfinder, this time he saw what HE had shot.

He couldn’t contain his happiness, more possibly for his relief that it wasn’t a BF after all! We couldn’t contain our relief either. Harvesting Hunger- the film went on to pick up awards and adulation and Sakubai’s was the most moving story in the film.

A little piece of participatory video made it possible.

But 14 years ago I didn’t know it was called that, neither did I know, that one day I will be a part of an organsiation, which would use this tool to reframe realities for hundreds of children across the country!

Krishnendu Bose

January 2013

Sundarban... an Epiphany

“Amder jongol ta thik Afrikar jongler moto lagchilo. Ki shobuj… ki shundor. Ami to bhabte’i parini… Camera die dekhlam. Bujhlam”

-       Buddha, Village Hentalbari, Goshaba, Sundarban.

“Our forest was looking just like the African forest. So green… so beautiful. I just couldn’t imagine… I looked through the camera. I understood” This is what Buddha said when he finished the 9 day workshop on Participatory Video (PV) with us at ECO. Buddha along with 8 other young adults of Hentalbari village in the Sundarbans went through an intensive 9 days where they learnt to create a video. They created their story, learnt to shoot and structure their film. Together they made a film encompassing their lives and it’s exploration, in a poignant film called ‘Sundorbone’r Sundori’ (Sundarbans- Forest Beautiful).

This blog is not about our experiences… though that would make for an interesting story. This one is about what Buddha said on that last day. It’s this astuteness of his, which gives the ever-playful Buddha the wisdom of his namesake. In one sentence he captured for me the essence of my work and brought me a sudden and startling moment of epiphany.

All over the world, especially in our country, Participatory Video is increasingly being realized as a one of the most potent tools of empowerment. A tool through, which the oppressed of the earth find one of the most important fundamental rights of a human being. The right to Voice. The right to tell the world their own story authored by them. Participatory Video has achieved miraculous ends giving the exploited a weapon to fight for themselves and find solutions for their lives.  Experiences and examples abound. The sheer power of holding a camera and walking into a space has the potential to change circumstances. When the person holding that camera happens to be someone who is disadvantaged, then we see the reigning power structures tilt for a while at least.

However there is another aspect of Participatory Video, which often goes unnoticed, unappreciated. It was this aspect, which Buddha led me to in the Sundarbans. When we began the workshop, the 9 young people who were its participants were not too enthusiastic to make a film about their lives. ‘There is nothing interesting in our life. The same forest, the same river, the same village.’ However when they started filming and creating their stories it suddenly dawned on them that their forest is really beautiful and so is their village and the people who live in it. During the filming, Bappa and Bacha told a story about a shark attack, which killed their friend and his brother. It is believed that on the day of Ganga Puja (worship), the mother Ganges ties up the jaws of the crocodiles and the sharks. All boys young and old jump into the muddy Sundarban rivers and swim across from one village to the other as a part of the puja. However a few years ago during one such day, while the boys of Hentalbari village were resting in the shallow waters after a vigorous swim, a shoal of shark attacked them and killed two brothers. Since then they have stopped swimming in the river.

The group of youngsters filmed this interview. They had all been present when the two brothers, their friends had been killed. It was a moment rife with emotion and I was somehow a part of all this. When we sat down to edit this interview, there emerged a discussion on why sharks and crocodiles had suddenly come into their river at this time of the year. Buddha, who had spent most of his life fishing in these waters, said that the sharks would come into their khal (river channel) only during the mating season. They seemed to prefer the comparatively sweet waters of the khal than the brackish waters of the open sea and rivers. Then why has this behavior changed what has happened to change it? I asked them if anything else had changed? The rest of the group jumped in. The weather has become topsy turvy… ‘grisho kale nei grisho, sheet kale nei sheet, boshont’e daakena kokil’. (it’s not hot during summers, not cold during winters, the koel bird no longer sings in spring.’) The islands are slowly being reclaimed by the river. Inch by inch. Day by day. Everything is changing didi. Why is this happening? What is happening to our lives? I asked them if they knew about climate change? I told them the little that I knew. The fog seemed to clear a bit. So there was an explanation. There were reasons. This is why our lives are changing. Is this why the fish is receding in the waters? Is this why it is becoming increasingly difficult for small fisher folk like us to eke out a living from our surroundings? It’s complex I told them. We have just begun to unearth and ask questions. But what is important is that we have begun asking these questions about our lives and this world we inhabit.

How did this happen? From the moment of disinterest and boredom to this moment of intense excitement of wanting set out on a quest, as it where to decipher their world? I believe this happened because of the camera and the process of filming. Framing their reality created the dual process of distancing them from their reality while at the same time linking them closely to it. Looking through the camera gave them the opportunity to almost step out of their own skins and look at themselves from outside giving them the ability to engage cognitively with their own lives, as if it were something to be observed, analysed and wondered about. 

It was this sense of wonderment which created this moment of epiphany not just for me but for these young filmmakers as well.

Kavita Das Gupta

Goshaba, Sundarban

January 2013

ECO will soon share the film Sundarban- Forest Beautiful, along with 2 other films made by children attempting to decipher and voice their narratives about their lives and their environment.

 Filming in the foggy rivers of the Sundarban near Hentalbari village, Goshaba

Story of a little village road...

... the ever energetic Suchismita

Suchismita was the highly energized one. So high voltage, that we had to find new ways to keep her focused and channelize her energies. Though she was also the one coming back with new ideas and arguments, which took the class forward.

Suchismita had an older brother and no father. He committed suicide, a few years ago trying to repay a loan he had taken to start a new business. Suchi, 13, wasn’t aware of the reason. I was told by the cycle van driver who took us to her house.

Suchi and 9 of her friends from class 9 of Dhablat Lakhsman Paribesh School were in an 8-day workshop making a film on sustainability. Their vision of sustainability, from their lived experience. I was the trainer who was a teacher and a co-learner at the same time. We were in the biggest island in the Sunderbans delta. All of 300 sq Kms. called Sagar.

Each child made an interesting journey to school. We thought we should explore Suchi’s. Just to know our filmmakers better. Suchi’s grouse was that on exam days she would be very anxious waiting for the boatman to finish his lunch and take her across the river. This excited me and Dharma, my co trainer, to do this journey with Suchi, one day after the workshop was done.

Suchi was thrilled. Her Sir had decided to visit her home. Evening was closing in. A small rivulet was to be crossed first. We waited for the only ferry boat in service and then waited for it to be full up before we could cross. A daily passenger Suchi, was today in the limelight. Everyone was asking- who we were? She proudly announced that she was making a film and these were her filmmaking Sirs.  

The boat ride was short. Then the cycle van. A flat bed made of wooden splats on two wheels drawn by a cycle. You sit on the wooden splat bed, careful not to get your legs entangled in the wheels. The ride took us about 30 minutes. We had to take a longer route today because the shorter one was being flood repaired.  Bobbing up and down on the village mud roads, we came upon a scene and there was commotion. Members of a family including women and children were sitting out on the road. On inquiring, we learnt that there had been a theft in their house.

The light was fading fast by the time we reached Suchi’s straw, mud and roof tiled house. Powered by their own solar ‘plate’ on their tiled roof. Her mother promptly produced tea for all of us and we had a few laughs over Suchi’s overflowing energy levels. Her house was next to a small patch of forest, which gave them fuel wood. No famed Sunderbans tigers on this island.

By the time we were out of her house it was pitch dark. There were no streetlights as is common in rural areas. Our cycle van driver produced a contraption which was a torch slung by a string over the cycle handle, pointing towards the road, throwing a small pool of weak yellow light. Visibility wasn’t more than a few meters. The road was a raised strip and the sides ended up in a ditch before the rice fields began. Once one of the back wheels was found precariously fighting a complete dislodge into the ditch. Thankfully it won that round and we all were still safe. We crossed the family out on the road. The cops were awaited still. One oil lantern had been added to the crowd.  Amidst the cacophony of cricket, the village was lit by tons of flickering oil lamps though a few low voltage CFL bulbs were also on display powered by solar plates. What I dreamt that night was, what if our cycle van had lost the battle and we overturned into the ditch?!

The children were making a film on the proposed development of the island. A port, a bridge joining mainland Kolkata to their island and power stations were proposed. Tourism and infrastructure development were next. The children were apprehensive of the new proposals of the adults.  They were ready to take an extreme ‘all development is bad’ tenor in their film, had it not been for my trip to Suchismita’s house that evening. Is, having streetlights in their village a bad idea?  Roads, which don’t flood every monsoon? A small bridge across the river, which may help Suchi bring her cycle across and not wait for the boatman to finish his lunch on exam days?

Controlled and an inclusive development is good. But a runaway development especially for an island ecosystem, could spell doom is what their film said.

Ajaner Deeper Golpo- A story of an Unknown Island.

Perched on the edge.... on the way to Suchi's village

Krishnendu Bose

New Delhi

22nd December 2012

Watch this space to view this film…

3 New Films on the Way

3 New Films... conceptualised, scripted, shot by 3 groups of children/ young adults from the Sundarbans and Kanha are in their final stage of production....

Waiting to share new voices and thoughts with you soon...

CHHOTO MOLLAKHALI, SUNDARBAN

GOBINDOPUR, SUNDARBAN

KANHA, MADHYA PRADESH

                                                  

INDRI, KANHA, MADHYA PRADESH

SAGAR ISLAND, SUNDARBAN

SAGAR ISLAND, SUNDARBAN

Sarang, one of our children filmmakers from Adharshila feels...

"trignometry is like filmmaking... is like music. all 3 need loads and loads of practice" :)

Scroll below to watch 'Trikon Khirkee Wala School', a film made by Sarang and his friends from Adharshila in a collaborative Participatory Video process with us at ECO. Enjoy!

Link to Trikon Khirkee Wala School

Children from Adharshila Learning Center in the heart of tribal south Madhya Pradesh make a short video about 'why shouldn't education be fun and interesting?' To push boundaries in true ECO style, they step outside the world of their own school and comfort zone to dialogue with children from mainstream public schools in a small city a stone's throw away from their school.

This film narrates the journey of these children and captures what happens when these two worlds collide...

To watch the film, click on the link below:
Trikon Khirkee Wala School

... a school with a window to the world.

Shankhayan

Adharshila

Adharshila, a name that would come up every now and then in the Earthcare office. And for the last few years I had been wanting to go there out of curiosity, to find out what was so unusual about this Adivasi school. I have worked with Adivasi children many times before but I was told that Adharshila is different.

Opportunity came when Kavita designed a participatory video project for Adahrshila kids. I was excited to take on this one.

Kavita had told me that the school was on a small hill surrounded by villages. Throughout the 15-hour journey, I kept imagining and picturing the school. Most of my previous work with Adivasis was more or less inside the forest or around it. So I was visualizing a school among tall dense trees, birds chirping...…. a typical forest scenario.

Kamal had come to the station at Indore to receive me, and no time was lost between us to break the ice.  I was joining the workshop in the second phase. After I reached Adharshila, within no time I was sharing a good rapport with the kids. Thanks to Kavita, they already knew me.

As I walked into the campus, I saw small groups of children scattered around. However, I could not make out what they were doing and before I could explore, Kavita took me to meet Amit bhai and Jaya, the brains behind the school.  I admire them for the choice and sacrifice they have made in their lives. It is not every day that you find people like them. We had a brief chat about the school and how it was conceptualized.

Thereafter I thought of getting myself acclimatized to the surroundings and took a walk through the campus. I came across a group of children with glucose bottles and drips, something I had only seen in hospitals and wondered what the kids do with these. Upon asking, a boy promptly explained to me that these are used for drip farming and he practically showed me how it is done. I don't think any text book would have explained drip farming better than my new little friends.

As I continued, I saw children doing so many things practically, which are connected to their course books and otherwise, as if to see if the theory actually works in real life.  I was amazed to find the connections each child had made with life, how they wanted to find a solution to everything, even if they didnt find one,  their quest continued.

At the chicken pen I saw a boy sitting and observing chicks. I asked him what he was doing. He said that some chicks are dying and that he was trying to figure out, why . This was Tota Ram, he became my favorite at Adharshila. He is fond of birds and has recorded over 70 birds in and around  Adharshila. He borrowed my bird guide book, and for the next few days I saw him wandering with the guide. On the last day, he returned my bird guide with all the birds he had seen book marked in it.

Each day  I was surprised by  the little innovations these kids made, be it finding a solution to make a shower for me out of broken material or providing a makeshift screen for viewing films. There is all round talent in Adharshila and a never dying curiosity to explore and learn.

The uniqueness of these Adahrshila kids, which distinguishes them from most of the children I have met earlier, was such that it never brought my attention towards the barren landscape.

The blanket of stars, driving Sureshji’s three wheeler, sugarcane juice after each screening, cooking in Amit bhai’s house, swim in the dam and so many other things will stay with me for years to come…

And yes, Tota Ram did manage to save the chicks, he found out the reason but that’s another episode...

Dharma

Dharma Singh did the camera and was part of a crew, which worked with 10 children from Adharshila to make a film called 'Trikon Khirkee Wala School'. You can watch the film, get a closer look at Adharshila Learning Center and embark on a journey with the children by clicking here.