Bandipora: On the directions of Deputy Commissioner Bandipora, Dr Owais Ahmed, Chief Education Office Bandipora on Thursday organized a very innovative and engaging workshop for students in Bandipora (J&K) in collaboration with Potli Productions.
The workshop “What Makes Me-“Me” focussed on creative self-expression through story building exercises and exploring careers in film making.
The workshop was attended by nearly 50 students from various schools of the district. An active participation by the students and an out of box approach to everyday issues was the key highlight of the workshop.
The introductory session of the workshop was conducted by Deepali from Potli Productions team and it focussed on familiarizing students with various media tools that can be used to document different aspects of culture be it food, language etc that often is an unnoticed part of our everyday life. Various creative writing exercises were conducted to help students to express themselves confidently.
This was followed by a dedicated session on story building and understanding various career options in film making. This session was facilitated by Sweskha Bhagat- an FTII Alumnus and Program Lead, Advanced Web Series Writing Course, Whistling Woods International (Mumbai). She is a well acclaimed screenplay writer for popular TV shows like Kaatelal and Sons (currently running on SAB TV), Chakravartin Ashok Samrat, Peshwa Bajirao, Qubool Hai and Kullfi Kumar Baajewala.
Joint Director Planning Imtiyaz Ahmad who devised the plan to organise such a workshop for Bandipora students said that the feedback from the students is being captured and will be used to tailor made sessions in future. He said the district administration has been encouraging initiatives for career development and confidence building of students from time to time and this workshop has been an important step in this direction.
Chief Education Officer Bandipora said that Thursdays’ workshop was important in gauging the overall interest and aptitude of the students. It is proposed to conduct more such follow up workshops with students in which technical experts from different fields may be invited to conduct sessions as per the requirement of the students. The same model may also be replicated and scaled up in other districts.
A special film making competition to capture stories from the time of our grandparents and other elders in the family was also announced and the results for the same will be shared next month.
