How has covid impacted you? What are the most challenging issues you are dealing with concerning your mental and physical health? Can filmmakers use their creativity in these tough times?
Isolation is a concept that goes against the grain of a collaborative endeavour like filmmaking, yet it deserves to be explored on screen.
The Kerala State Chalachitra Academy issued a request for short film screenplays weaved around the theme of “Isolation and Survival” as filmmaking, like all other activities, came to a halt during the COVID-19 outbreak. A slew of scripts veering off on numerous tangents from this central premise was submitted for consideration. The Academy chose the top 10 and awarded them financing to make their films.
The Academy has shown the selected films as a short film festival on its YouTube page for the previous two days. The lockdown-themed short film festival is gaining traction online, with films ranging from a barber in isolation to the idea of isolation from the perspective of a motorcycle.
Shanoj R. Chandran’s Oru Barbarinte Katha, starring Indrans, has been one of the most popular of the bunch. With the lockout in place, a barber spends his days alone in his shop-attached house, with the sole visitor being a volunteer from the community kitchen giving him meals. He forms his hair and moustache, steadily producing a Hitler-like look, which he believes corresponds to his authoritarian personality toward his wife, a janitor at a government hospital who has abandoned him. Isolation and loneliness cause him to reconsider his previous deeds.
Thinking about the concept and the vision gives a sense of relief that we are not the only one facing the problem; other people are facing a similar fiasco. It gives a feeling of unity.
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