Third World Realities

I wrote a radio play, aired it, and then went on to make an animation film out of it. My budget was nil, but enthusiasm and ideas I had in plenty. I know a couple of people who are into video post-production and they helped me with it. It took about two months to finish, and by the end of it all, I ended up spending about Rs. 4000 on it (US $50+).

Am I proud to have made an animation film – well, there are more of static frames than dynamic ones, but it was a good dream while it lasted. The project is over now and the film in question lost in my yard of projects that were abandoned or forgotten after completion. I did send the film to a Film Festival – it is another story that it failed to get past the initial selection round.

I recently got a chance to be involved in a documentary project: to cover the Deepankha Festival, which was happening in Patan, Nepal after 38 years. It was a historic event, but I declined. I still have a sour aftertaste after my documentary fling. Will I ever make a film again? Definitely, only this time, it will not meet the same fate as my last one.

An attempt at animation on a 50 dollar budget – it sounds absurd: see the result and you see that its worth much more than that. Was there a public screening? NO! What about publicity? NO again. Was it then a complete waste of time and effort? Not at all. It ended up being a lesson on life.

I live in a third world country, though, don’t imagine me as a diseased, shriveled-up, hungry and dirty fellow. I live okay, no cars, ipods or razr V3s, but a decent enough life. I am hard-working, honest, creative to some extent, and I dream too. I have a mini DV cam, use an assembled PC and software (pirated, but the best of the lot).

We lack a lot, but we have plenty too. I have seen miracles where it seemed implausible.

We lack, but we adapt. We fail, but we try.

We have limits, we got to work within them.