Do We Accept The Truth?

Short film shows the plight of the working street kids of Bangalore, India By John Virata

Filmmakers RajKamal Suthar, left and Alexis Dias.

Alexis Dias is one of tens of thousands of Indians who have benefited from a high tech industry that has blossomed in India over the last decade. Earning a comfortable living in Bangalore, Dias couldn't help but notice that not all city residents have benefited from the high tech boom. During his daily commutes to his job at a software company, the 33-year-old software developer noticed a disproportionate amount of children doing menial jobs in order to survive. India is a country of more than one billion residents and Bangalore is a city of about six million, yet Dias still felt distressed at the number of children working on the streets of Bangalore, carving out an existence doing laborious and dangerous jobs. So Dias and several colleagues, armed with a Panasonic GS200 three CCD miniDV camcorder and Sony's Vegas video editing software decided to make a film to show two contrasting themes typical of any developing country; the affluence in the big city and that of the plight of the working street kids. The film, Do We Accept The Truth. . . is interesting in that, besides a score, has no dialogue, yet still evokes a powerful message. DMN's John Virata spoke with Dias on the making of the film and why and how he did it.

DMN: What gave you the idea to make a film about child labor in and around Bangalore?
Alexis Dias: Children suffering is not hidden. I made the film in Bangalore because I am working in Bangalore, if I would have worked in Chennai in India, I would have made the film there.

DMN: You chose to go without dialogue with this short documentary film. Why did you choose to make the film in this style?
AD: Sometimes I believe that silence is more powerful than dialogues. You can speak far better through pictures/images and music than dialogues. Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin's silent film - Modern Times is one of the greatest masterpieces through which Sir Charlie Chaplin, in addition to comedy, shown us the suffering of life.

DMN: How many hours of footage was captured during the shooting of the film?
AD: Five hours

DMN: How many people worked on the film, who are they, and what were their roles?
AD: Four persons, Myself, Sundeep.K.S, RajKamal Suthar and VaraPrasad. Sundeep.K.S and RajKamal Suthar were in the final year (May 2006, when we started the project) of their Cinematography course in the Government Film and Television Institute Bangalore. Sundeep was involved in taking the photography. He was also helping RajKamal in camera work and he was always with us throughout the shooting session. - we three (myself, RajKamal and Sundeep) use to walk almost 15 to 20 kilometers per day during the shooting session. RajKamal was doing the camera man job. VaraPrasad, who has more than 10 years of experience in post production, performed the editing and composed the music also. He is working in an animation company in Bangalore. Direction, production and concept was mine.

DMN: Did this film take weeks or months to make? Was it completed in your spare time and the spare time of the others involved in the film?
AD: Yes the film was done in our spare time. We started the project by the first week of May 2006 and the shooting went on until the last week of June 2006. Every Saturday and Sunday we were doing the shooting. (16 days of shooting )

DMN: You are in software development yet you made a very interesting film. Have you had experience with filmmaking in the past? Do you intend to make more films in the future?
AD: Yes I am into software, but we all are into films, because we know how to pick the right film. I had no experience in filmmaking before. This is the first film I made, thanks to the electronics technology because of which a film can be made with very less cost and of course thanks to the Internet technology, my film has reached to you and all. Yes I want to make more films in the future. Thank you for liking my film.

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John Virata is senior editor of Digital Media Online. You can email him at jvirata@digitalmedianet.com

Related Keywords:Do We Accept The Truth, Alexis Dias , minidv filmmaking, digital filmmaking , Bangalore India, DV filmmaking,