Hyderabad, March 09: At the tender age of four, when Mayuri started taking pictures of all things around her with a digital still camera, her parents, a landless dalit couple, were surprised. Now at the age of 10, Mayuri has made a documentary film, an achievement that many of her peers can only dream of.
Masanagari Mayuri, daughter of Punyamma and Narsimlu, is studying in fifth class in a government primary school at Pastapur village in Zaheerabad mandal, Medak district. This talented young girl has made a six-minute documentary film titled ‘Dhanwarlo O Avva’ (grand mother in Dhanwar Village) on her 80-year-old grandmother who is into ecological agriculture.
The film was screened at the Seventh IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival on March 7 at New Delhi. It premiered in the Mobile Bio-diversity Festival, 2010 and was also the inaugural film in the VIBGYOR Film Festival of Thrissur, Kerala in the same year.
Speaking to mediapersons here on Tuesday, director of Deccan Development Society P V Satheesh said that Mayuri has proved what a deprived village girl from a dalit family could be capable of if provided with the right environment and encouragement. Mayuri also exemplifies the possibility of children being able to learn some of the most cherished ecological principles from their community leaders, he added.
The film was a result of Mayuri’s visit to her grandmother Ratnavva’s farm in Dhanwar village in the winter of 2009. As her video camera rolled on she starting talking to Ratnavva about the crops that she grows, how she uses them in her day to day life, the food that she cooks, the animals she rears etc.
“I observed the cultivation of crops in the village and decided to make a film on farmers and their crops in order to create awareness on it in the media. The media does not focus on agriculture. I want to become an agriculture journalist and tell citizens about farmers’ problems and address the challenges of the agriculture sector,” Mayuri said adding, “I will focus on creating awareness on ecological agriculture.”
–Agencies