In a country where Bollywood rules the roost, there are only a few who are serious inclined towards documentaries. However, those who want to carve a niche for themselves in the field of documentary have to face tough challenges owing to a lack of guidance and financial assistance.

Therefore, to promote upcoming talent in the documentary sector, ‘DocWok’ - a workshop, was recently held at Zorba the Buddha. 

DOK Leipzig, which is one of the oldest and the leading documentary festivals in the world along with Magic Lantern, founded by filmmaker Gargi Sen, organised the five-day-long workshop for a select few.

An interesting part of the event was the presence of known international documentary filmmakers like Claas Danielsen; Illo Von Seckendorff; Ollie Huddleston and Peter Symes, who worked as mentors and guided the six candidates who were selected  out of 34 applicants.

“The main aim of the DocWok is to provide training, mentoring and financial assistance to the candidates. This year we have selected six filmmakers from all across the country. The selection has been based on the way the subject of the movie has been dealt with. There will be three workshops in New Delhi and Leipzig, Germany to assist and guide young filmmakers,” says Gargi, the brain behind the workshop.

The first part in this series was the ‘Rough-cut workshop’ held last week in the City. The six selected works that went through intense tutoring and editing  included Miranagri by Anjali Panjabi. The 90-minute documentary focuses on the history of gender and caste inequalities.   The Elephant from the Bridge by Abhilash Vijayan is based on nomadic culture of travelling circus and the people related to it. 

There were two films -  Metroplis by Gautan Sonti and Usha Rao and Behind the Trains by Yashashwani Rag­h­u­nandan and Ekta Mittal which focused on the transformation of Bangalore as a global city. The Textures of Loss by Pankaj Butalia and The Bullet Does Not Hit One Head by Shazia Khan was based on Kashmir.

According to Claas Dani­elsen, managing director of the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, ‘DocWok’ was an intensive workshop to make filmmakers aware about good editing. 

“We are focusing on how filmmakers can improve their skills in editing and direction. They are in the middle of a creative process where they need guidance and interaction to improve their work and to establish themselves.”