The first
stop for The Traveling Players was at Happy Child School in Guwahati and we
couldn’t have asked for a better start to the journey. We got a phenomenal
response from the students and teachers. The auditorium was packed to capacity,
with around 200 students. The day started off with much excitement and a little
bit of drama.
After the
inauguration by Chief guests Dr. Shravan Kumar, CEO of CFSI and Mr. Swapnil Barua,
Secretary of the cultural affairs for Assam, we started the screening preceded
by a brief introduction to the film and the work that CFSI has been engaged
with recently. The students welcomed the opportunity to get out of the
classroom, and embraced the magical world of Cinema with no hesitation what so
ever. We screened an old classic, Halo, directed by Santosh Sivan. It was
amazing to see children still enjoying the film, which we saw as children
ourselves, around 17 years back! Art is truly timeless. The 15 students, who
took part in the Mise en scene workshop, produced some quality work, which will
be uploaded later for y’all to see. The storyboarding workshop was really fun
as well, with some students creating some top quality storyboards with some
really fine sketching. The children were quite eager to answer the questions
asked to them as part of the quiz competition, based on the film they saw. Some
DVDs were given away as prizes, which the students all fought hard for, albeit
in some disorder.
It was
amazing to see such an overwhelming response from the children, who are smart
beyond comprehension. We hope to see such commitment in the other states to
follow as well.
While half
the team will continue with the screenings in another school and NGO tomorrow
in Guwahati, two of our team members are proceeding towards Nagaland. Here’s
wishing them the best of luck and hoping for a peaceful turn of events.
Oh, and we
are facing some glitches with uploading photos on the blog, so in the meanwhile
you can check them out on Cinedarbaar’s facebook page.
