Meeting with a Technological Fortune Teller

Prof. Karl Bardosh New York University (NYU), the internationally recognized Father of Cell Phone Cinema

Over 30 years of professional experience in Europe, Asia, Brazil, Hollywood and New York in all genres of film and television, Prof. Karl Bardosh of New York University has been an award-winning director, producer, writer, editor of features, shorts, television series and documentaries. He had initiated the world’s first network television educational series on the Aesthetics of Film (Hungary, 1967).

He has also, pioneered a new genre, Poetry Music Videos, with Allen Ginsberg (USA, 1984), and had written, directed and edited the first American documentary on Bollywood and Indian Parallel Cinema for the American Public Broadcasting System (Bombay, 1992) that was run in prime time for three years. Prof. Bardosh has also pioneered Cell Phone Cinema in India, in co-production with Executive Director, Sandeep Marwah, at the Asian Academy of Film and Television. In an exclusive interview he shares his thoughts with Abhijit Ganguly.

You have been a trendsetter in many ways. What new trends do you foresee in TV and entertainment content?

The audience has less patience to sit in front of a TV set and only looks at programmes that are preset for them by the “gatekeepers”. Due to the presence of the second screens (mobiles) they want to see whatever they want, wherever they want and in whatever order they want to receive content. That means an internet approach and in fact there is a great trend of integration between Internet and Television screens and programming. Due to the popularity of games there will be an increase of interactivity as well as leading to polyphonic narrative structures, meaning that there will be multiple plot lines subject to interaction with the audience. This will not eliminate traditional storytelling but will augment it increasingly.

To what extent does the interfacing of TV with the Internet, impact the kind of documentaries that are being made?

User generated content on social media and mobile have already increased the scope of documentaries especially in terms of citizen journalism. There have been numerous occasions where television professionals could not get access to important events and the only source of audiovisual information for television networks had to come from citizens' mobile devices using internet or cell phone delivery.

Do you think the costs and access to audience have increased with this move from studio-based productions to indie and self-generated productions? Has this allowed for more freedom in creating content?

My new course at New York University is called No Excuses Cinema: Microbudget Features and my new mini-studio Fresh Start Films financed by MlT Holdings are aimed at giving young filmmakers a chance to make their first features right upon graduating from film school where they mostly make short films only. Microbudget feature films can be the new calling cards for young filmmakers. They can also be artistic or commercial breakthroughs. Think of Paranormal Activity that was made for about USDl2,000, yes, twelve thousand dollars and with its sequels ended up making around USD 500 million. There are other examples as well. The issue is no longer how to make a film, as due to new technologies there is no excuse not to make a film, but the key issue is still distribution. New distribution means that filmmakers must research and shape their contents to a niche core audience at least. None of these will affect the great commercial spectacles for general audience, only increase the chances for independent filmmakers for “parallel cinema.”

Could you elaborate on multi-camera live broadcast? What is it and what is its potential for use and growth?

Scripted multi-camera live broadcasts have been on the decline for many years. I still remember that I used to work on teleplays decades ago staged for multi-cameras, and televised live. Multi- camera live broadcast is most essential in sports, news and major events like parades, national holiday ceremonies, etc. The question of multi-camera live coverage versus recorded and edited shows is really a question of control. When you have control over an event like staging scenes with actors in films, you repeat takes on single camera until perfect control over the shot and the scene.

In sports or on other occasions where you do not have control over the event you need multiple cameras for trying to cover the event live that runs on its own schedule.

1

They use panels of trucks as the canvas for art

You have seen them on the news and TV channels. Those  beautiful and elaborately painted trucks on the roads of Pakistan, where every inch of the vehicle is decorated lavishly. Now Three Pakistani artists- Haider Ali, Mumtaz Ahmed and Md. Iqbal, all professional “truck artists” from Karachi is decorating the Hatibagan Nabinpalli pandal with their unique ‘truck art’ this Puja. The idea of housing the Goddess inside the truck-pandal first came to Gopal Poddar, a Durga Puja theme consultant.

Pakistan is a country known for its home-grown art, culture and heritage. Just like the signboards paintings and calligraphy on walls of legendry sites, there is another native form of art known around the globe but performed in Pakistan That has come to be called ‘truck art’. Haider elaborates: “Eye popping landscapes, colorful floral patterns, beads, portraits of national heroes, famous actresses of Pakistan and India, poetic and calligraphic poetry and religious verses are painted on transport trucks. Each truck costs around Rs10 to 12 lakh to decorate. The most expensivetruck art is from Karachi and Peshawar”. 

Recently,Haider Ali’s work as an artist was recognized by Canadian Senator Salma Attaullajan, who presented him with a certificate of appreciation during the South Asian Heritage Day at the Royal Ontario Museum. Mumtaz adds “Through the years the materials used have developed from wood and paint to metal, tinsel, plastic and reflective tape. Within the last few years trucks have been further embellished with full lighting systems.”

Decorating vehicles is a cultural practice for drivers in Pakistan. It not only is significant for drivers but also influences others. Such an art has social impact on people and they do it to convey a message. This impact might elevate awareness among people — especially the illiterate — about significant issues in a simple manner. Many people hope there might even be awards for truck art some day. Haider signs off, “If allowed, we could paint the drabbing trams as well.”

22

Stopping child marriage and empowering the girl child

                                                                                                        Kanika Barman, Megan Mylan and Monica Barman

A United Nations report in July said that India has the sixth highest prevalence of child marriage with one in every three child brides living in India.

In patriarchal societies like that of India, a girl child is often perceived as a burden by her family because she is not seen as a financial contributor and that her family has to be pay dowry to get her married. The cost of dowry can devastate a family financially; so many families do what they can to avoid paying a large dowry. In many cases, this means marrying a girl off young, even when she is 12 or 14 years old. By tradition, if a bride is very young, dowry is sometimes reduced or not required. Once married, girls usually have to drop out of school. But many are fighting this regressive trend and building up awareness to create enlightened girl-child friendly societies.

In the last three years, over 40,000 adolescent girls from West Bengal have bloomed into the latest crop of breadwinners from rural India. This is the story of After My Garden Grows, a new documentary by Megan Mylan, the Oscar-winning director of India's ‘Smile Pinki’. In the movie ‘After My Garden Grows’, Monica shuns the idea of becoming a child bride by growing her own garden, thereby becoming an asset to her family. Her family had married her older sister off. However, Monica decided that this was not the path for her. In the documentary, it is shown how Monica goes to the market and earns 760, starting her journey as an income generator, and changing her family’s perception on girl child.

The film premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival this year. It was produced by Principe Productions and supported by the Sundance Film Institute in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) with additional support from the Kendeda Fund.Talking about the documentary on the sidelines of the screening of the documentary at the Kolkata international film festival, Megan says, “Ideas of social change and stories of people evolving on their own through change are what pull me to make documentaries on their enterprise and hardship. My films, though they deal with poverty and ignorance, are aimed at hope because I see hope in the way Monica is trying to change her life along with the lives of other girls in her village. She is knowledgeable about what she is doing and talks about this in my film.”

She feels, “Fathers need to understand that the best economic investment they can make for themselves and their daughters is education. It's to empower them to become economic providers of the family.I am not going to gauge its impact by finding out if the last girl was not married before 18 because of the movie. But the fact that Minister Maneka Gandhi has decided to include the film in the ministry’s basket of films to be shown in rural areas of 100 districts is heartening." In early 2012, Landesa, a rural development institute partnered with Women and Child Development Department of Government of West Bengal, India through the SABLA programme, which aims at improving the nutritional and health status of adolescent girls and to empower them through education on life skills, health, nutrition and vocational skills. Landesa brought in an innovative approach in the pilot implementation of the scheme in a block at Coochbehar District by introducing land component in both life skill education and vocational skill development in the empowering process.

Supriya Chattopadhyay, Communication Manager, Landesa, said, “Poor, rural girls in West Bengal face a host of vulnerabi- lities that threaten their social and economic wellbeing. These include extreme poverty, malnutrition, gender-based violence, lack of education, trafficking, and child marriage. Numerous factors play a role in creating girl’s vulnerabilities, but two in particular are at the heart of the Girls Project. One is how families and communities perceive a girl’s value. Another is the poor economic reality. The issue of child marriage illustrates how these factors converge to the detriment of girls. He adds, “Landesa’s curriculum includes teaching girls about their rights to own and inherit land, and intensive gardening skills. The goal is to improve the girls’ nutrition in the short-term and in the long-term, improve the girls’ understanding of their land rights to allow them to exercise those rights when they are women. Landesa is working with partners to explore integrating the initiative with the existing ‘Kanyashree’ programme by the state government which aims at continued education and delayed marriage for the girls.” Presently, Landesa is working with the government to scale this innovative intervention in five districts beginning in 2015. Landesa is working with partners to explore integrating the initiative with the existing ‘Kanyashree’ programme by the state government which aims at continued education and delayed marriage for the girls. The project’s intended high-level outcome is that up to 1.4 million girls will be positioned to realize land rights as women, improving their economic and social prospects and empowering them to reduce vulnerabilities that they face as adolescents. An estimation suggests that, once scaled to reach one million girls, the programme will cost an average of only 60 Indian Rupees/1 US Dollar per girl per year.

She signs off, “At a time when we see daily reports of women's rights in India under attack, it is a privilege to be able to share this positive story about young women empowering themselves.”

After My Garden Grows, is a new short documentary by Oscar winning director of Smile Pinki, Megan Mylan. The film tells the story of Monika Barman, a rural Indian teenager growing food to feed her family and the seeds of her own independence in a tiny rooftop garden. 

2

Art does not have a goal oriented reason- Rolf Nikel

Recently German Painter, Rolf Nikel organized an art exbhition "Beats on Brushes” at Academy of Fine Arts , Kolkata. Rolf explains his work “My works are actually not pictures in a classical sense of images. They are very real as what they are. They are works which reveal themselves with certain easiness in real space. And they are able to – so I hope – unfold themselves directly (without any

intellectual questioning) in the perception of the viewer. They are not determined by a frame to the outside or by a certain theme. “  He adds, “Images and media always mismatch the measurements e.g. by putting the world into a frame or squeezing it onto the display of a mobile phone. Landscapes are compressed. Small things are magnified deliberately. The perception in these cases has nothing to do with the original distance anymore. Therefore I am interested in throwing back the observer of my works into his original sense of scale in his own physical size. People always want to explore the sense and the purpose of art. But art does not have a goal oriented reason.”

0

Digital Stories can make students creative and enhance media literacy - Jessie Curell

Jessie Curell,  is an ex Team Leader and Education Specialist for the National Film Board of Canada. With a university background in Anthropology, Communications and Media Production, her Master’s Degree thesis project was a four-month Canadian workshop tour teaching teenage girls feminism, media literacy and media production. Delivering workshops to youth is a passion for Jessie, sharing with them skills and techniques which they can apply to any medium they wish to put into action. Her latest workshops have been focused on the NFB’s new iPad animation application “NFB StopMo Studio” which brings a semi-professional animation studio into any classroom or home, with limitless possibilities for fun and creative expression.

What are the latest trends in the field of Digital Storytelling?

I don’t believe that the format of Digital Storytelling (personal narrative made up of image, narration, music, and text) is changing as much as the quantity of stories being told is expanding in exciting new directions around the world, and being distributed online on more and more blogs and education websites.  The Centre for Digital Storytelling began in Berkeley, California about 10 years ago. It has certainly caught on in the USA, Europe and other parts of the world are slowly catching on with it.

Why is it important for children and communities to tell their stories in media?

The first step is introducing students to creative thinking with regard to media messages and stories.  Why was this story/message created? What is the main message?  Who do you think made it?  Who do you think would feel left out/unrepresented from this message? The next step of media literacy is creating your own message.

Creative expression is important for people of all ages because it demands them to shift from a passive consumer of media/stories/advertisements, and asks them to take an active role as a creator and sharer of their own opinions, ideas and stories.  Before digital technologies and the internet, it was only a select few filmmakers, broadcasters and media tycoons who had access to this privileged opportunity.  Now with a simple camera and basic computer software, anyone can take this role and speak up and out about an issue that concerns them, or share thoughts, feelings and ideas with others.

What are the benefits of Digital Storytelling for teachers and students?

This project encourages and supports the students through the process of story development and production, as the teachers are letting them know that their opinions and ideas are important, and that the world needs to hear them. It is a very empowering experience to be a filmmaker, and Digital Stories are introductory versions/formats of documentary films.  The skills acquired during this process are infinitely useful in this increasing media-savvy world.  With new story-boarding, photography and iMovie editing knowledge, many new doors and opportunities may open for them all.

How do you perceive the Indian education system?

I have only spent a total of about two and half months in the country. In terms of Digital and Media Literacy though, I do have a sense that this is a curriculum and teaching area that needs more attention and work.  Students seem to now have access to many of the technologies and the internet, though I don’t get the feeling that they have been taught media literacy techniques nor ethical considerations when creating their own stories.

0

A dancer and purveyor of grace and talent, meet Cirque du Soleil's Nicole Montagne

Nicole Lamontagne,  a classical and contemporary dancer from Montreal, has been with the world famous Cirque du Soleil since 2006. She conducts auditions and conferences all over the world to recruit the best dancers for the continuous casting need of Cirque du Soleil. Prior to working for Cirque, Nicole was a Principal Dancer for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens for seven years, soloist for Ballet British Columbia for four years, and a soloist for Les Ballet Jazz de Montreal for three years. She also has her college certification in administration and accounting, has worked with directors on high priority reports, and is at ease managing tight schedules and heavy workloads.

Her musical sensitivity along with her acute sense of quality of movements are part of the elements that explain why so many choreographers and collaborators have chosen to work with Nicole in dance as well as other various disciplines like artistic skaters and contortionists. Nicole studied music from the age of six. During her career, Nicole explored many dance styles: classical dance, jazz, modern dance, tango, and folk dance. While in college, she trained in theatre. She collaborated in many television shows and operas, which gave her opportunities to work with multi-disciplined artists.

Who… or what in particular… was the biggest inspiration for you as a dancer/artist?

Actually, I can not say that one event, person played that kind of role for me. I truly met incredible people along my path and got to work with amazing choreographers. My inspiration came from them being inspired by my dance. Of course I have certain dancers that I looked up but that did not play a role in my desire to dance.

Have you faced resistance in your career for advancement, or do you cultural resistance for being a woman taking the stage? (If so how do you deal with it)?

Actually, in my country there is no such resistance. We have a strong need to take our place and work hard to stay there. It is more the place of the woman then the man actually in the world of Classical ballet. What was difficult at the beginning for me is that I was trained in the school attached to the dance company I worked for and since I was there from a young age, it was hard to be looked at as an adult. They saw me even at 25 as the little child.

Did you find the pressures of working in your industry significant with regard to feeling the need to have a “perfect” body?

Not at all. I was fortunate to never have a weight problem. I never dieted. I saw many dancers around me with that struggle. I felt bad for them but I can't say that there was such dramatic pressure. It is just common sense to be healthy when you are doing such hard physical work. And not even that, everyone should eat healthy just for the sake of it.

How do you find a work-life balance — what are keys to balance?

That is hard still today for me. My brains is constantly chattering. As a dancer, I often went into difficult periods because I felt my career was stopping me from having a normal stable life. Twice I retired and had said it was over but soon I would realize that breathing was harder when I was not dancing. It was what I was born to do and could not escape my destiny. I soon realized that my concept of balance in my life was based on the "Cinderella" syndrome and that if you ask me now I know that that kind of life I was dreaming of would have made me a very unhappy person. 

0