Keeping it short & not so simple

“Cinema to me is all about storytelling, about creating visual literature,” says this feisty filmmaker whose next two films revolve around Bhagat Singh and victims of acid attack. That she, along with others chose the short medium, finds logic and reason in the fact that it’s an excellent learning ground and stepping stone to bigger features, eventually.

“The financing is easier, the technology is accessible, the results are quicker and the time span is perfect to get a point across,” says Mann. Yes, they are young, restless and raging, pulsating with ideas and opinions, passionate about bringing to light uncomfortable, swept-under-the carpet issues. Take artist-sculptor Tarsem Singh Sidhu. His short, ‘Brand New Song’, turns up the volume on the led, vulgar, demeaning lyrics that are increasingly forming part of mainstream Punjabi music. He dares to question this ‘cultural degradation’ through his film, through singers and upcoming voices, who don’t mind making a quick buck by singing such content.

“It is regressive and encourages discrimination against women. We don’t realise it as its lost in the loud beats and club din. This is propaganda and we need to raise our voice against it,” says Sidhu, all set to make more films on Punjabi music and another on fine arts artists. Where Sidhu is loud and clear, theatre activist Jagdish Tiwari has chosen a rather abstract route through his short, ‘Nirvikar’, a film that follows a theatre artist and his selfless work for people.

“I am a firm believer of doing one thing, and completely. Picking filmmaking or acting just as a ‘shauq’ will lead you nowhere. In order for one to evolve, this process has to be consistent, constant and focused. The rest naturally follows,” says Tiwari, doling out gyan for aspiring filmmakers. Sitting quietly in a corner, engineering student, Sudhanshu Parashar, agrees, and adds another perspective to it through his film, ‘Year Back’.

“We live in a world where we are told what to do, what profession, course to pick. I’ve questioned this hard mentality through my film, ‘Year Back’, and panned on how like me, so many children are pushed by their parents into engineering without their say in it,” says Parashar.

It’s an inspired and youthful bunch that wants to chart their own course, take roads less travelled. “Capture the change, tell the story as it is and then leave the audience to interpret without wasting anyone’s time or money,” chips in Sawan Madman, who screened his short, ‘Hokm Ka Joker’. Collectively, they feel one should have a support system, a back-up plan, a safety net, too, to pursue a risky career like cinema. “Friends, family, people for whom you make such cinema need to acknowledge and help,” feels Mann.

With no money or distribution networks in place, it’s sheer grit, passion, and determination with which they continue their work. “It’s my sanity project,” 30-year-old Mandeep (who goes by his alias Mister Mandeep) defines short filmmaking as.

“It’s the perfect platform to poke, raise awareness, make a point sensibly,” feels Mandeep. His short, ‘Enquiry’, explores identity, how it’s complex and compartmentalised, and how we all live in our self-created bubbles. “Short film is the next level in cinema, pure and raw, miles away from censorship. It’s a space as free as it can get, a medium through which I feel I am having a conversation with my viewer,” adds Mandeep, working on a graphic novel now.
Cinema, for these budding filmmakers, is a statement, something that is shared after serious thought, deliberation and conviction.

With the increase in film fests like these and YouTube, they also feel short films are vital links in re-programming an audience. “To make them sit up and take notice, think, and act and not just reduce to blank channel surfers,” says Mandeep.

The festival is on till August 30 at the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10. Entry is free, 11 am onwards.