KOZHIKODE: Peeli Pampally’s birthdays were always different; celebrated by donating books to the school library or by planting trees in the backyard. And a usual walk around the trees with her camera, narrating the rare birthday experiences, has brought the class IV student of St Joseph’s Anglo Indian Girls Higher Secondary School laurels as a filmmaker at this small age. Her short film, ‘Peeli’s Birthdays’, has won the second best children’s film title in the environment film competition organised by Kerala Chalachitra Academy.
Posing for videos for her father’s camera and clicking beautiful snaps, camera has been Peeli’s companion and the film was shot by her using the Sony Cyber-shot 16 mega pixel camera during a stroll around the backyard. Showing the trees her father planted on each of her birthdays, the six-minute film conveys a message on the importance of planting trees.
The realistic nature of the film with the natural innocent dialogues and actions of Peeli and the natural jerky camera movements have further added beauty to the film.
About her film, Peeli says, “The visuals were not intentionally shot for the film. And I just took the small camera when my father refused to give his professional camera and shot the trees as if introducing it to someone just for a fun. And it was my father who found a film in it and suggested few more shots for it.”
“I like roaming around the trees, watching them growing up, blooming etc. Among the trees in the backyard, the custard apple tree is my favourite,” says Peeli in the same style as in the film.
Peeli and the trees are the only characters in the film, other than a few guests at her house shown in a shot.
Though I have posed for numerous videos, my first appearance in a film was in ‘Tooba’, shot by my father for our school,” says Peeli. About ‘Peeli’s Birthdays’, her father, writer and filmmaker Sandeep Pampally, whose short films have won numerous international awards, says, “While seeing the rushes shot by Peeli on the few trees planted by me on her birthdays, I got interested and helped her in transforming it into a film. Though I suggested adding some scenes, I never intervened in her dialogues or visuals. Moreover, to keep it her signature work, I did not try to make the film perfect by carrying out the editing works.”
“And the natural narration and realistic presentation have contributed to winning the prize. Jury member Vinod Mankara had pointed out during the award ceremony that the natural narration of Peeli while conveying the strong message set the film apart from the rest,” he adds.
The film was edited by Rahul Raghav and produced by Pampally productions.
Meanwhile, Peeli who aims to become a doctor, says, “Though my ambition is to become a doctor, I won’t give up making films. A film on the dances of nature will be my next work. I don’t know when I will shoot it. But it will feature the beautiful dances of leaves, flowers, pappus etc.”