Films

This video is a series of 12 short films that are the result of ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall’s a five-year project video workshop project with Indian children. In six workshops held in different locations across India, Indian children were empowered to explore their everyday surroundings using video cameras. The films adopt a range of styles that express the different personalities and lives of each filmmaker, but all of them give an intimate view of modern Indian life, seen as only children could see it from their unique position in Indian society.

The workshops lasted from six to twelve weeks with children from ten to thirteen years old. They came from a variety of class and religious backgrounds, in both rural and urban settings, from New Delhi to Rajasthan, Kolkata to Ladakh.

The workshops asked children to choose topics they considered important in their own families and communities. After several weeks of basic instruction in using video cameras, they began using them to explore their chosen topics organised as research projects. The workshops gave the children a chance to investigate subjects that are often known only from an adult perspective, a challenge they embraced with enthusiasm. Their films attest to the competence and sophistication children can achieve as filmmakers when offered the opportunity. In all twenty-four films were produced of which twelve have been selected for this DVD.