By Damica Marcia Mawlong
The pandemic has made, and is still making, headlines and unravelling shocking stories of struggle and injustice. And yet many stories remain unsaid and unknown. These are stories of common people who are struggling to cope with the new reality and the temporary confinement. Their stories may be simple but the individual experiences are important to complete the vast pandemic chronicle. Stories of The Hearth 2020, an online short film contest, is the platform for such narratives which would have otherwise been lost amid the long chain of events.
Weeks of planning, remote conferences and several sleepless nights went into the pitch and organisation of the contest.
A brainchild of The Hillspeople Collective, a digital content creative agency and specialist production crew, the contest would have not been possible without the support of presenting partner RAC Stores (a unit of CR Projects).
Keeping in mind the goal of motivating people to do something productive during the lockdown, a team of three members — Mewan B Mylliemngap, Tyrel Reuben Lyngdoh and Damica Marcia Mawlong — brainstormed and ideated to activate the event following safety measures prescribed by the Health Department and decided that a contest would help alleviate boredom and get people to do something more with their time.
The team went about preparing all the collaterals, followed up on legalities and prepped the activation of the first-of-its-kind digital event.
“While being stuck at home and limited to only having virtual communication with people, I realised that there were so many amazing stories in every household but there was no platform for sharing them. Using this opportunity, my team and I came up with this idea of hosting this contest for storytellers and budding filmmakers to make use of their time and creativity and the only catch was — film within the premises of their homes,” said Mylliemngap.
The contest aimed to leverage the time people spend on phones browsing the internet and playing games, and thus the idea of having a mobile category was floated and appreciated by all. “Mobile phones are now capable of shooting videos as good as DSLR cameras and would allow for more people to compete,” Lyngdoh said.
The response to the two categories, mobile and professional, was overwhelming and it was a difficult task to adjudge the best out of 30 films.
There were many first-time filmmakers who did a brilliant job. A majority of the participation was in the former, with close to 20 films being registered and 10 films in the latter category.
The judging was held in two rounds — the first was held by the SOTH Organising Committee (primarily members of The Hillspeople Collective) and the criteria were based on technical and rules followed. A marking system that took into consideration narrative, production design, cinematography, sound and editing was used to analyse the films in the first round.
The second round had an eclectic panel of individuals ranging from graphic designers, photographers, artists and social media strategists from established agencies like Alienleaf Studio, BitBucket Solutions & Falcon.io. The criteria in this round were from a consumer perspective and films were judged based on how effectively the stories swayed the judges. It was a Herculean task to deliberate and required a final round of viewing by the presenting partner to lock the winners.
One of the most entertaining films that enthralled everyone was The Box by Khuaranteam that won the Best Film in the mobile category. It highlighted the nostalgia of the good old days and was a great example of what fun you can find in your homes and backyards. Desmond Suting’s Choices, a one-man band film, was the runner-up in the mobile category. It was a thought-provoking film about the restlessness of our minds, procrastination and how we tend to overthink things and put too much pressure on ourselves to be productive.
Tang Shipor won the Best Film in the professional category and is another stimulating film that takes the expression ‘being caged’ to a cerebral level. Technically sound and highly polished, this was a film that spoke a lot of the talent of our space. The runner-up film in the professional category was Iarap – a simple narrative that brought to light the work of frontliners and underlined the hypocrisy of society in these strange times.
One of the participants said, “It was a really good opportunity for me to take part in this contest as I got to make use of my time at home productively and at the same time, be able to tell a story through my short film. I want to thank the SOTH team for coming up with this initiative which is also one of the first online events to have been organised in the state.”
The name of the contest is an ode to those times when children would be huddled around a fireplace, or dpei, and would earnestly listen to the stories of their elders or grandparents about tales of folklore and fables, of talking trees and of the sun and the moon, and of the customs and traditions of the place we call home.
To keep up with the social distancing norms and for safety reasons, State Health Minister A L Hek announced the names of the winners through a live Instagram video along with the president of Shillong Press Club, David Laitphlang, on June 22.
The SOTH team’s streaming partner, Quarion Cine Sicarius, helped curate the event on June 22 from the presenting partner’s office premises in the city. This also marked the beginning of the first few virtual events that have been held in the state since the COVID-19 lockdown pandemic.
“I am delighted at the opportunity to once again stand proud witness to the enormous talent that our citizens both young and old possess in the field of film making. With so little resources, once again the abundant talent comes to fore in our beautiful state of Meghalaya,” Hek said.
“It just yet once again goes to prove that when there is a will and desire to excel, there indeed is a way. Congratulations to all the winners and I also congratulate everyone who participated in the SOTH contest. God bless and God speed,” he added.
Congratulating all participants and thanking the greater team for the initiative, Mylliemngap said, “We look forward to collaborating with more like-minded artists and storytellers in the future. ‘Stories Of The Hearth’ was definitely a great accomplishment for us amidst this lockdown and we will definitely be back next year with another contest.”
(The author is a member of the SOTH 2020 team)