‘I hope’: UoP bags third place with documentary on child labour

The Vasakh Film Festival occurs annually in Lahore with participants from South Asian countries.

PESHAWAR:

After winning third place at the 7th Vasakh Film Festival, the University of Peshawar (UoP) Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) department is optimistic it can secure first prize next year.

The festival takes place in Lahore every year and screens documentaries and shorts from South Asia.

“The lack of basic resources, including a studio or cameras, could not stop us from securing third place out of seven. The six other national universities which participated had provided their teams with all the necessary equipment for participating in the competition,” said one of the 12-member UoP to The Express Tribune. The team was sitting in the small room where they edited their documentary.

“We wanted to show Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the country a story in pictures. Then we decided to do it by making a documentary on child labour,” said the producer of the documentary titled ‘I hope’ and the trainer of the team, Fida Khan.

Fida said the UoP students were not given transport which was a huge problem for them to collect all the material but they were determined not to let any hurdle stop them.

It took around 45 days to produce the documentary. “It was all about telling a story and these students told it in an extraordinary way,” said the proud producer. “I knew we would make it to the top three.”

Noman Khan, the director of the documentary, said viewers were left speechless after they saw moving visuals of a child in bonded labour working at a brick kiln in the scorching heat. “This was the moment that caught the judges’ attention, shared Noman.

“See, you need to hold the audience’s attention and it is only possible when you have an interesting story to show.” The students did everything – the recording, editing and scripting, added the director.

The university teachers’ interest in their work encouraged the students, said the team. It encouraged them to do their best and the hard work paid off, they added.

“The moment the judges announced UoP won third place, we started screaming and shouting in joy,” said Omar Farooq, a group member, recalling the moment they received the trophy.

First and second prizes went to the University of Sindh Jamshoro and Islamic University Bahalwapur, respectively.

Highlighting the achievement of his students, JMC chairman Dr Altafullah Khan said the administration has announced the construction of a studio in the department.  “If they can bag third position without even basic equipment, they can definitely secure first place once they have a proper studio and cameras.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2014.