A film club with a big heart

By screening movies with developmental themes, a Delhi-based film club is helping NGOs

An eclectic group of people gathers to watch a documentary on the Baiga of Madhya Pradesh who were evicted from their homes inside Kanha National Park. Some in the audience are students, others retirees. Some are activists, others simply there to enjoy the movie. After the film is over, they discuss it over cups of tea. And so, quite effortlessly, Kriti creates, what it calls, a “praxis” — when experiential learning effects attitudinal change.

For those who question the role movies can play in changing or at least modifying mindsets, here are some examples. After watching the movie, The Tiger Crosses the Line, at Kriti, a Class XII student felt inspired to start a tiger helpline and is now studying to become a veterinarian. A retired mining industry executive watched a film screened by Kriti, Development Flows From the Barrel of the Gun. “He came to me and said how sorry he was that he hadn’t realised earlier what a toll development takes on environment,” recounts Aanchal Kapur, founder of Kriti. “He added that if he’d seen this film when he was still working, it would have definitely made him do his job differently.”

Set up in 1999 with the aim of helping NGOs and grassroots organisations to develop their communication strategies and disseminate their message more effectively, Kriti: A Development and Praxis Team has been doing much more than simply running a film club that provides an audience for movies with development themes. “We work as a development support team for people’s organisations across India and the world — from people’s movements to international agencies, women’s groups to trade unions, civil society organisations to government agencies, individual activists to media persons, and students to academicians,” says Kapur. Its range of activities includes providing professional services in design and communication, capacity building, research and documentation, curating films and organising/facilitating conferences on developing effective communication strategies for NGOs. Additionally, Kriti has also undertaken research studies aimed at building capacities of grassroots NGOs with agencies such as Oxfam and Actionaid. “For example, we conducted a 14-state study on violence against women in which we researched all the NGOs working in the sector and analysed their data and strategies,” says Kapur.  

Kriti has also been operating Gestures, a livelihood support and outreach initiative, since its inception.

Kriti has also been operating a livelihood support and outreach initiative, Gestures, since its inception. “I firmly believe that providing sustainable livelihoods is the best way to empower disadvantaged communities,” says Kapur. “By showcasing ethically made, sustainably produced products online and at our centre, we want to encourage more and more people to buy community-made products instead of shopping in malls.” For the purposes of fundraising, Kriti not only markets products made by Gestures, but also by other NGOs. It also brings out an annual diary, which can be customised for corporations. “Eventually, we would like to charge a small membership fee to our film club to help finance our activities,” she says. Funding, however, remains a problem for an organisation that has always wanted to be the facilitator rather than the facilitated. 

The future looks rather busy for Kriti. “If we are able to get some funds, we aim to set up a dedicated venue for film screenings where interested people can watch movies and borrow DVDs,” says Kapur. Presently, the film club screens one movie a month at New Delhi’s India Habitat Center. “With the help of our volunteers and interns, we plan to screen our movies in more and more schools in order to reach out to younger audiences,” she adds. Another plan in the pipeline is for Kriti to develop and expand its own filmmaking capabilities. “This will add to the bunch of services we offer to our NGO partners,” she adds.  

Meanwhile, every story of attitudinal change, whether it is the many volunteers at Kriti who have gone on to set up development organisations of their own or the private school in Delhi that has, following that interactions with Kriti, introduced gender into the syllabus, motivates Kapur to carry on. For, as she puts it, “Our aim is to work with the unconverted — and see if we can make a difference.”

For more, visit krititeam.blogspot.in or follow them on Facebook. 

Next fortnight, a band of barefoot lawyers is democratising access to legal aid in some of India’s most disadvantaged districts