It was a filmy day at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s school, Jubilee Hills on Monday. The school played host to students from Jubilee Hills Public School, Gitanjali Devashala, Meridian School Banjara Hills, Oxford Grammar School, whose short films were screened at the school premises as a part of the INTACH FilmIt initiative.
INTACH, in collaboration with the Helen Hamlyn Trust of the UK started the FilmIt programme for the first time in Hyderabad after its success in cities like Delhi, Kolkota, Chennai and Goa, over the past four years. Tollywood director Nandini Reddy of Ala Modalaindi fame graced the occasion as the chief guest.
About three months ago, schools were given a handycam and put through a workshop to educate them on the technical aspects of making a small documentary film. “The idea behind such a programme is to ensure that children know about the heritage of their city and other cities by using technology,” explainsedPurnima Datt of the Heritage Education and Communication Service of INTACH Delhi. Post the workshop which took place in November last year, the children were asked to form a group of around 20-25 students and roam around the school or city to make as many documentary films as they wanted, within a time limit of two minutes. “The theme for the films was save – saving the heritage – be it water, trees, monuments, or even intangible aspects like the food, culture, etc. And the kids did a wonderful job of it,” Datt added.
However tech-savvy this generation may be, the kids did face a few problems using the camera initially. One of the students of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavans made a film on the same. “In the beginning we didn’t know how to use the camera, and were confused about the editing techniques. So we thought we’d make a documentary on that and everyone seemed to like it,” beamed an eighth standard student, Srinivas.
Following the success of this, Anuradha Reddy, convenor, INTACH Hyderabad, says that they plan to branch out into different districts of the state. She shared, “We conducted this programme in the above schools because they already had the infrastructure and had active heritage clubs as well. However, we want to extend this to other schools across the city and state depending upon the kind of funding we receive.”