6 weeks Documentary Film making and Film Appreciation Course
organised by Open Space/CCDS in September - October 2005
CCDS through its civil society outreach programme Open Space has worked with films, documentaries, discussion forums, lectures, workshops, seminars, theatre, literature, music etc to take messages about justice, rights etc to a wide cross-section of Pune's middle class since April 2004. Of all the media and methods Open Space has engaged with, documentary films and related discussions have been the most effective means of building awareness and raising consciousness among young people on a wide range of issues. In keeping with the larger aim of building the capacity of youth to institute social change, Open Space organized a 6 week course in documentary filmmaking and film appreciation.
Resource persons:
Avinash Deshpande: Course Co-ordinator, freelance documentary filmmaker (Faculty at FTII, Pune)
Arshia Sattar: Language of the audio-visual medium, narratives and creating narratives.
script ideas and concepts, perspectives and positions, Open Space/CCDS (Pune)
Madhushree Dutta: Documentary film genres, Documentary filmmaker (Majlis, Mumbai)
Anjali Monteiro: Social communication and mass media, Filmmaker, academician (TISS, Unit of Media and Communication, Mumbai)
Dilip Chitre: Screenings and presentation on the theoretical and practical aspects of documentary film making. Poet, Filmmaker, Pune
20 participants formed 4 groups, with 5 participants in each group. The 1 st 10 days covered the theory module. Partcipants were introduced to their team members to begin discussion of final film projects. Participants were exposed to a wide genre of documentaries to view, understand and analyse different approaches to filmmaking along with specialized lectures by resource persons through the 10 days supplemented with screenings and discussions. Post the theory module students worked in teams, selection of topics was done through discussions with Avinash, course coordinator, Arshia and Renu. However there were lot of initial disagreements on topics to choose from besides team compatibility. A lot of times, individual projects didn't seem to go beyond the discussion stage.
Each group was allotted 3 days to shoot which extended to 4/5 days invariably and 3 editing shifts, I.e 3 days which extended to 5/6 days.
Outputs:
4 groups produced a short film each on 4 different themes. (average duration, 10 mins)
Include/Exclude (examining prejudices, personal as well as communal and ways in which we as individuals and communities internalize them and act upon them)
Waste Matters (the throbbing issue confronting citizens of the city about waste management, arguments between the PMC, residents and the ragpickers)
Sex and the City (disparate views on sex and sexuality from amongt a wide cross-section of Pune's urban middle-class and their constructions of morality)
Nagarik (The role played by citizens (Pune) in effecting better traffic and transport policies in the overall betterment of the city's infrastructure and environment.)
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