t was the first time that Moulali, a 12-year-old boy, was handling Canon 700D digital SLR cam to capture the early morning shots in his neighbourhood located at Ramurthi Pantulu Peta, below Kancharapalem flyover.
Assisting him with his innovative endeavour was a team of school dropouts, including Lakshmi, Rani, Pramila, Anjali and Anand. They have been waking up at the crack of dawn for the last few days to complete their household chores as fast as possible and don the role of young filmmakers.
While some of the little ones are drawing up an elaborate plan to celebrate Children’s Day on Saturday on their school premises, slum children of R.P. Peta, who have been robbed of their childhood, have been a busy lot shooting a documentary film. The exercise was little unusual for them as they begin their career at the age of nine or 10 and extend financial support to their parents by involving in a series of petty jobs.
Bringing a smile on their faces was cartoonist and documentary filmmaker Hari Venkat who thought of canning his next short film ‘Our Slum’ involving these slum children. “Last year, I screened an animation film for them to mark Children’s Day. This time, I wanted to treat them to a different scene with my documentary. Capturing the early morning shots require a certain amount of finesse. I am surprised that these children have caught on so quickly. And by the end of the day they were already on their own, testing the waters and sharing technical inputs,” says the cartoonist who would be uploading the 15-minute long ‘Our Slum’ film on YouTube shortly.
Except cooking and catering to domestic needs, an 11-year-old Anjali was never exposed to a different life.
“The shooting process turned out to be a great experience where we coordinated with one another and had loads of fun,” she says.
For Moulali, it was a true celebration of life. “The interesting part is that the film features how we live in this murky slum area where nobody likes to visit even for once,” says the Class IV student who has fallen into the technical line quickly enough.
The shooting process turned out to be a great experience where we coordinated with one another and had lots of fun
— Anjali, a slum child
