Students from government schools to make short films

Winners to get a chance to go abroad, says School Education Minister

Over the next two days, around 150 students from government schools across Tamil Nadu will be trying their hand at something new — making a short film.

As a part of the School Education Department’s initiatives, movies were screened every month across government schools through the current academic year based on which, competitions which included writing essays, elocution and painting, were held.

From these competitions which were conducted at various levels, 27,554 students emerged winners at the block level. Following this, 3,163 students were winners at the district level and subsequently, 152 students who won in the district level competitions are currently in Chennai for a six-day ‘Children’s film festival’ programme. 

From Monday this week, the students attended sessions which covered various aspects of filmmaking. Nathasha Rajkumar, a student, said that they were taught how to use a camera, how to shoot, how to write dialogues and also aspects such as editing and music for films. The students also had film screenings, were taken to watch the film Avatar: The Way of Water and were taken to the Birla Planetarium.

Rafiq Ismail, a filmmaker who directed the Tamil movie ‘Rathasaatchi’, conducted sessions for the students, and said that they were very interested and knowledgeable about the various aspects of filmmaking. “They observed a lot during the movie screenings and asked questions.” Writer duo Subha—Suresh and Balakrishnan showed the students clippings from the films they had worked on and interacted with the students about writing for films.

School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi said that by encouraging students to participate in competitions, they were aiming at giving them a platform for their creativity and building their self-confidence. “We hope that this reflects in their academics as well. The department had earlier announced that the winners of these competitions will be taken on a trip abroad and 25 students will be chosen based on the short films made and will be taken to Los Angeles,” he said.