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
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