Documentary Film Screening

The Department of Journalism and Mass Communication organized a Documentary Film Screening on April 3^rd, 2017 in AV Hall, followed by an interaction session with MsMitaVashishtha, an eminent Theater artist and Bollywood actorwho is known for her range of roles that she has played in television from Space City Sigma, PachpanKhambe Laal Deewarein, Swabhimaan, Alaan (Kirdaar) to Trishna in Kahani GharGhar Ki and Jethi Maa in KaalaTeeka to film roles with a wide spectrum of directors with different cinema styles. She is also known for 75-minute solo theatre performance Lal Ded, a famous play.

Lalleshwari (1320-1392), also known as Lal Ded, is the creator of the mystic poetry called Vatsun or Vakhs, literally meaning 'speech'. Known as Lal Vakhs, her verses are the earliest compositions in Kashmiri language and are an important part of the history of Kashmiri literature. The Vakhs have also been translated into English.

Since 2004, Vashisht has been doing a 75-minute solo theatre performance titled Lal Ded based on her life and poetry. She's now looking forward to the release of her documentary-feature She of the Four Names, based on Lal Ded and commissioned by Public Services Broadcasting Trust (PSBT), India.

During the session, she talked about her experience of shooting the documentary and also the ups and downs one faces during the process. She also discussed about the basic elements and approaches to keep in mind regarding the documentary cinema. Making of a documentary takes typical 90 second local news story takes an hour or two to research, 3 hours to shoot, 2 hours to write and 2 hours to edit. There might be a reporter, camera and editor involved. So that's about 10 person hours for each 90 seconds.

The nitty-gritty of the process of documentary film making was discussed with the students. She also discussed about the process of making a documentary from a scratch and also about the theme one must chose for the same,  keeping in mind the current happenings around the country. Adding to it she taught about Film Appreciation and  basically said that itsan attempt to make one understand the potential of a movie along with a good understanding of the history of cinema. It empowers an artist to know about the major aspects of a movie. In other words she basically talked about the entire process from the before and after of the making of a film documentary. At the end of the session students in groups did film appreciation on films of their choice. The session concluded with the vote of thanks presented by Dr. Garima Shrivastava, HOD, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.