When college students Sam Thomas and Ajith Raj started on their documentary project conceived on a whim, neither of them could have imagined that it would end up being selected for screening at the ongoing sixth International Documentry and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) or that it would draw the attention it did from certain quarters.
Their documentary, titled ‘Between Friends; Beyond Limits...’, is a 35 minute venture, screened in the ‘Showcase’ section, that allows glimpses into the life of eight of their colleagues who struggle against odds everyday.
“The idea is that every one of us has a unique story to tell and some of these have the potential to inspire others,” said Sam Thomas Valiyakala, one of the directors and producer of the film. “There are people around us, our own friends and colleagues, whose lives can serve as inspiration if only we knew more about them.”
Their documentary then introduces the viewer to the eight people, all students of Mar Ivanios College in the city, whose stories the makers felt should be heard by a wider audience. To name some of them, there’s Stephin ‘sir’, who started losing vision in both his eyes when he was in Plus One; Deeptisree who has, more or less, been on her own since she was 5 or 6 years; Vishnu, who feels his one hand is more than enough; and Vandana, who has gained recognition for her dance performances on her single leg. This is a journey, as the makers put it, “in search of the inner life, a life beyond limits, of some people around us”.
“When we interact with people during NSS camps or blood donation drives, they open up for brief moments and we get a rare insight into their lives which was the source of the idea,” said Sam, who has just graduated from Mar Ivanios College having pursued a bachelor’s degree in Commerce. “For example, I met Stephin when I was a scribe for him during an exam and then I wanted to know more about him. And likewise, we started asking people, connecting with friends of friends of friends to know more stories.”
While they had a clear idea as to what their storyline would be, making the actual thing was no cakewalk, as they found out.
“We had nothing - no money, no contacts, no technical know-how,” said associate director Ajith Raj, a graduate in Zoology from MG College. “We had to hire cameras, microphones, speakers and all the other equipment. We did all the work ourselves though we had a lot of help from many people. It was a major learning process.”
Their whole project cost between Rs 30,000 and 35,000, an amount they had to seek out for themselves. Of this, about Rs 20,000 came from a government scholarship Sam had won for scoring high in his high school examination.
“Then we had people, friends and strangers, chipping in,” said Sam. “At a point when we were pretty much broke, a friend gave Rs 2,000 of her savings without us even asking for it.”
The two friends know that their film is far from perfect.
“In technical aspects, there are plenty of flaws - for example our film was shot in three different types of cameras so output quality has suffered,” said Ajith. “Sound quality was bad so we needed to do a voice over. Narration and scripting also can be improved, but what we pride ourselves on is that we made this with zero knowledge of film-making and no one to guide us.”
Yet, it has brought Ajith and Sam some attention from several people and their constructive criticism has encouraged them.
“One thing I was really touched by was that after watching our documentary at IDSFFK, an NGO has offered to sponsor two of the people shown in the film, and talks are on for that,” said Sam.
The project which took six months to materialise was screened for the first time in February at Sam’s college. Since then it has been screened at a couple of other educational institutions in the city. The IDSFFK, to which they sent the entry at the suggestion of their editor, is their first major screening.