:: News Plus

Mumbai filmmakers get US award for media work

Shagufta Kalim

It's time for the ordinary women to come forward and tell their stories. And this time the stories won't go unheard. All thanks to the efforts of Mumbai-based documentary filmmakers Sapna Shahani and Angana Jhaveri.

They are the first Indians to win the prestigious US-based HASTAC's Digital Media and Learning competition, a MacArthur Foundation and the University of California and Duke University's collaborative initiative. The awards translate into an opportunity for the common woman to don a citizen journalist's hat and highlight issues of concern.

Sapna and Angana's proposed project "Women Aloud: Videoblogging for Empowerment (WAVE)" was awarded $107,000 to train one woman from every state in India to become community journalist and create videos about development issues such as education, livelihood, environment and social justice. These videos will then be viewed online on a first-of-its-kind national women's' video blog called www.WomenAloud.org, to be launched in January, next year.

"The WAVE project was among 19 projects selected from a pool of 700 applicants from the US and four other countries. This is the first time that proposals were invited from India for grants towards innovation in participatory learning using new digital media technologies," says Sapna, who co-wrote the winning proposal with Angana.

Sapna worked as the manager of a community media centre in California for six years, and then returned home to pursue the burgeoning career here.

"I am thrilled that the award gives us a platform to demonstrate the vast potential of using media as a tool for development in India," she adds.

It's their passion to use media to create awareness about women's rights - in this case creating a women's network of videobloggers articulating stories about the needs, successes, and changes occurring in their communities.

"We will encourage the women producers to identify stories about development. They will cover areas like health, environment, employment, access to basic necessities, education, democracy, and gender equality among others. We will tell them in the training to try and focus on success stories from their area while highlighting the problems too. They will also be encouraged to pick stories that are unique, or never covered before," says Angana, whose company Illumine Films has been making films about culture and social concern organisations for several years now.

The award funds, managed by Mumbai-based NGO partner 'Point of View', will be spent over the coming year on video equipment, monthly stipends for the participants, the training programme and other necessities.

However, the WAVE team hopes to make the project self-sustaining in the coming years by providing employment opportunities to the growing network from international campaigns needing video stories from a women's journalist network.

Currently WAVE is seeking applications from women aged between 18 to 25 years of age, who interested in learning to use media tools to help their communities. "College students or graduates associated with a local NGO or media college, and proficient in computers would be ideal candidates. The videos would be watched internationally by development-oriented NGOs, academicians, social investors and others, leading to an increase in resources contributed to marginalised communities. Applications can be sent by email at womenaloud@gmail.com and are due by October 21. There will be a two-week centralised training workshop in Goa in November after selection of the applicants and the nine-months-long video mentorship programme will follow," informs Angana.