This 10- year- old Mayuri grabbed my total attention yesterday, when i saw her interview on a Telugu news channel. I picked up this article from THE HINDU for my blog. Read and get inspired!A video camera on her frail wrist looks like an extension of her arm, as much as the still camera hanging from her neck, which is by now a familiar sight.
As still photographers and camerapersons train their lenses at her, she lifts her right arm, flips open the viewfinder and focuses on some object that catches her fancy and starts recording. That's Masanagari Mayuri, a little just over 10-year-old, class V student of a government school, who has attracted attention with her short film ‘Dhanwar-lo O Avva', a six-minute visual delight that captures a day in the life of her grandmother.
If she has learnt to handle a videocam from her aunt Chinna Narsamma, a non-literate Dalit farmer and a pioneer filmmaker in her community, and uncle Yesu, a conversation with her grandmother Ratnavva has inspired her to make a profile of the latter's work on the farm in Dhanwar village of Medak district. In the six-minute film, little Mayuri has captured her grandma's daily activity. Ratnavva does not buy any food from outside and is self-sufficient with the produce from her two-acre farm. It is not just the camera work. The little girl is quite adept with the Telugu script and is guided by P.V. Satheesh of the Deccan Development Society, under whose project area Mayuri's native village of Pastapur in Zaheerabad mandal, in Medak district, falls. The society works with Dalit women in 70 villages of the district on food sovereignty.
Premiered at film fest
The short film has the distinction of being screened at the inaugural of the 7th Asian Women's film Festival, 2011, in New Delhi on Monday. It was also premiered at the VIBGYOR Film Festival at Thrissur, Kerala, and impressed people there.
Her prowess with the camera is what distinguishes Mayuri from the other children of her age. Mayuri is assisted in her work by Chinna and Mocha, who help her with the equipment that includes a tripod and an umbrella, which protects the camera from the harsh rays of the sun. Ask her what she wants to become when she grows up and pat comes the reply: “Journalist specialising in agriculture.”
