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Nine year old Indian lad from Dominic Savio High wins 'Best Script 'award in Canadian young filmamkers Festival, Toronto
ANDHERI, (Mumbai) 10 May, 2006: He's only pint-sized - and just nine pints at that, but producer and script writer Anshul Khosla of Mumbai, India won the ‘Best Script’ award for his stunning documentary ‘Love Changes Everything’ at the inaugural the inaugural Young Filmmakers Film Festival, Toronto, Canada.
Young Anshul, of St. Dominic Savio High School, Andheri (East), won the award in the Under-10 category; his was the only entry from India. Anshul, an outstanding student who has just passed Std. IV, based his documentary on the true life stories of street children.
Anshul, already a concerned young human being who empathises with the less privileged, was inspired by the plight of these street children, some of whom are being cared for by Shelter Don Bosco, Wadala, a home for homeless children run by the Salesians of Don Bosco.
The idea of submitting his film for the Toronto festival was initiated by senior journalist Ronita Torcato, of Mumbai, who informed Anshul’s Vice-Principal, Fr. Joaquim Fernandes. Being the head of Media Initiatives at St. Dominic Savio, Fr. Joaquim teamed up with Anshul to shoot this 16 minute and riveting documentary using a handycam.
Following his visit to Shelter Don Bosco on a social awareness programme about street children, Anshul was shocked after hearing their real life stories first-hand and instantly decided to base his documentary on Ganesh, Babloo and Ijaz, the characters in the film. “Here was a golden opportunity to showcase their lives and hopefully bring about a change for the better through love,” reveals Anshul. “I believe love can change lives and decided to make it the theme for my documentary.” Anshul also remembered the audio skit ‘Love Changes Everything’, aired on All India Radio in December 2005, in which the young director himself was the narrator, and used the same title for his documentary.
Apart from going behind the camera with Fr. Joaquim, Anshul was supported by a team of experts from school. Support also came from home, including dad Lakhnesh, mother Pooja and sister Donna who helped during filming.
Festival Director, Vince De Marinis was full of praise for this effort. “To begin with, it is excellent and thoughtful of you to actually create a DVD cover for the film. That shows a real level of commitment on an artistic and business (promotional) level. “Your story is very good and believable. Many people think that when you write a script or story about personal experience it is easy to do. This isn’t necessarily true. You have shown an ability to choose the right moments to give the audience a sense of conflict and obstacle,” Marinis said in his appreciation of Anshul’s effort.
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please
contact admin@bosconet.aust.com Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml
Nine year old Indian lad from Dominic Savio High wins 'Best Script 'award in Canadian young filmamkers Festival, Toronto
ANDHERI, (Mumbai) 10 May, 2006: He's only pint-sized - and just nine pints at that, but producer and script writer Anshul Khosla of Mumbai, India won the ‘Best Script’ award for his stunning documentary ‘Love Changes Everything’ at the inaugural the inaugural Young Filmmakers Film Festival, Toronto, Canada.
Young Anshul, of St. Dominic Savio High School, Andheri (East), won the award in the Under-10 category; his was the only entry from India. Anshul, an outstanding student who has just passed Std. IV, based his documentary on the true life stories of street children.
Anshul, already a concerned young human being who empathises with the less privileged, was inspired by the plight of these street children, some of whom are being cared for by Shelter Don Bosco, Wadala, a home for homeless children run by the Salesians of Don Bosco.
The idea of submitting his film for the Toronto festival was initiated by senior journalist Ronita Torcato, of Mumbai, who informed Anshul’s Vice-Principal, Fr. Joaquim Fernandes. Being the head of Media Initiatives at St. Dominic Savio, Fr. Joaquim teamed up with Anshul to shoot this 16 minute and riveting documentary using a handycam.
Following his visit to Shelter Don Bosco on a social awareness programme about street children, Anshul was shocked after hearing their real life stories first-hand and instantly decided to base his documentary on Ganesh, Babloo and Ijaz, the characters in the film. “Here was a golden opportunity to showcase their lives and hopefully bring about a change for the better through love,” reveals Anshul. “I believe love can change lives and decided to make it the theme for my documentary.” Anshul also remembered the audio skit ‘Love Changes Everything’, aired on All India Radio in December 2005, in which the young director himself was the narrator, and used the same title for his documentary.
Apart from going behind the camera with Fr. Joaquim, Anshul was supported by a team of experts from school. Support also came from home, including dad Lakhnesh, mother Pooja and sister Donna who helped during filming.
Festival Director, Vince De Marinis was full of praise for this effort. “To begin with, it is excellent and thoughtful of you to actually create a DVD cover for the film. That shows a real level of commitment on an artistic and business (promotional) level. “Your story is very good and believable. Many people think that when you write a script or story about personal experience it is easy to do. This isn’t necessarily true. You have shown an ability to choose the right moments to give the audience a sense of conflict and obstacle,” Marinis said in his appreciation of Anshul’s effort.
_______________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please
contact admin@bosconet.aust.com Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml
