Today, the prints of the documentary film ‘Gold In The Net’ are present in the memories of the Bengali colony. Because yesterday, the power of darkness helped us to strengthen the power of light. As soon as it was time for the projector to work, light outspread through the support of darkness in the white curtain hanging on the wall. This amity of light and darkness amidst a community manifests the essence of the community. Both these lights helped to satisfy the curious spectacles of Bengali people when the movie ‘Gold In The Net’ started.
Every impactful work is an outcome of collective efforts. These impacts were easily visible in yesterday’s ‘Gold In The Net’ film screening in Nanakmatta’s Bengali colony. It is a documentary film made by the students of class 11th from Nanakmatta Public School. This film depicts the life of a fisherman who migrates 30 km with his neighbour from their permanent residence to a temporary settlement at Nanak-Sagar (Nanakmatta). It’s an occupation-based film on fishermen’s different methods of fishing while living in Nanakmatta.
Today, the gap between community and education is making learners artificial and unnatural humans. Present education is making learners more dependent on the only sources that the education system suggests. While the community is losing its importance as our focus is on reputing educational institutions more. This raised wall between education and community is maltreating the learner’s natural ability to learn.
Amidst the 200 people of Bengali Colony gathered for screening, we celebrated our film victory with their arrival in the film show. It was fascinating to see people’s responses during the scene of Bengali people in the film. This was managed by the student agency of Nanakmatta Public School.
Without setting our learning sources fixed, we, the learners, have considered the community as our necessary source where we are often ready to find and create spaces of learning. Here the duty of learning is not only of ours but as well as the people of the community. The screening of ‘Gold In The Net’ in the Bengali colony is one of the initiatives to proceed with this idea of breaking the wall between education and community.
The one-hour screening was lit up by hundreds of people smiling and clapping. The wall and the white curtain hanging on it had even become friends. Wall thanked the cloth and said, “I always get bored being here alone. I have only one job, which is to support this whole house by being a wall. I always look forward to some festivals or other events when people can gather and celebrate something with me. But this happens only once or twice a year. But seeing people gathered today without any festival, I have also got a different energy. My job was always to support the house, but today I have got a new job of supporting the screen. I’m a wall. I can’t go anywhere, but despite being in the same place today, I learnt a lot about different people and communities through movies.”
Cloth Replied, “Yay! Thanks, wall. Not only you but there are also many walls in this area which need this kind of environment and such celebrations. I think this should continue every time on different walls. But I’m the only curtain in the area who enjoys movie screenings. How will it be possible for me? People have only one use for curtains; if more curtains like ours could be made, then probably it will be better for the walls of not only this area but of the whole world. But more curtains will be ready to screen only when more children make films.”
Constant conversation between curtain and wall, the togetherness of light and darkness and people’s longing eyes to see something new in the community presented another movie in front of everyone. The second movie was ‘Gujjars of Terai’, based on the life of the Gujjar Community. This movie is also made by the students of Nanakmatta Public School during the lockdown.
Before this community screening, two members of the team of ‘Gold In The Net’ were also part of the one-hour virtual screening of the movie through Cinema In School initiative. Cinema activist Sanjay Joshi and education activist Mahesh Chandra Punetha delivered their opinions about the movie and connected the practice of filmmaking with the idea of the classroom and education.
Educational institutions help in reproducing social systems that promote the continuity of the social structure. Every person living in society has to get an education by passing through educational institutions so that they can show the status of their existence in society and survive in this world in a systematic way. The journey of learning starts from the birth of a human, but society gives value to only the learning of educational institutions.
In the virtual screening, we discussed the student’s role and how cinema impacts the student’s learning. A defined student role is really dangerous to learn. Every student needs to be a learner. For this, the classroom should be more flexible in providing independent learning spaces. Making of Gold In The Net is also part of such independent learning. When we engage in this kind of learning, we start implementing our ideas. Set our rules and starts to own responsibilities by themselves. We possessed students’ ideas of films and cinema and also discussed processes and learning while filmmaking in this virtual screening.
While working on this film, we worked with those who have language, but the grammar is not verified, those who are eligible to move but can’t come to the front, and those who look easy but whose stories are diverse because we worked with the community of rural locality. I found rural peoples are very sensitive to adapting their behaviour in accordance with their society’s norms. A female holding a baby, kids playing without slippers, and an old lady on a bunk are symbols of the village that have come first in every majority after listening to the word ‘rustic’. But more is needed; there are too many things under that symbol of rural representation. There is stories, tales, and chronicle, that never efface communities’ history.
One of the important aims of documenting the stories from rural areas is to save their stories forever and promote their stories to the world. Today one side of the world is connected with another side but devoid of the rural world. No one is interested in knowing about rural areas. Mainstream media is engaged in promoting only those features which are already in trend. If this continues, many stories and identities of rural areas will become extinct, like the species. Also, news and media determine our perception of the world.
According to World Bank estimates, more than 900 million people’s population crossed into rural India. If we consume all the news and information devoid of rural stories, then our perception of the world will be less and half. We can say ‘wrong’ and ‘not actual’ perceptions. That’s why this documentation is important. And many students from our school also engaged in documenting these stories from their surroundings in the form of films, writing, photos and cartoons.
After 2-3 months, we not only completed the film but documented a story which consists of language, visuals and emotions of rural India. Our responsibility after completing the movie was easily noticeable on 19 November 2022. A day where the student’s agency was more prioritised in the classroom to prepare for the screening. Hecticness gets erased while envisioning today’s night in between the community. Sharing the film of a community with the same community was really powerful to observe. Hope, the friendship of light and darkness, remains forever. Wish every wall would invite every curtain to meet soon.