'The Caregivers' is the title of a documentary that I'm making under a Doordarshan- PSBT (Public Service Broadcasting Trust) 'fellowship'. Over the next few blog posts, I'll try and run you through the process of making this documentary. These posts will have some material that will be repeated from the Facebook page of the documentary. To those of you who do not know this page, its at <www.facebook.com/documentarythecaregivers>.
I have applied, unsuccessfully, to PSBT a few times. So when I saw the call for proposals for 2014, I was a bit sceptical. But finally, I did send a few proposals to them, under various schemes.
The Caregivers grew out of my personal position: I'm here in my hometown of Meerut, UP, looking after my mother, who is now 86. Naturally, her friends and my larger family are all people who are ageing (OK, technically we are all ageing with each breath that we take). Quite a few of the people were also living on their own, both with and without 'hired' caregivers.
Having seen these people when they were younger, and now suddenly seeing them as 'old' was an emotionally charged experience for me. As I observed all the people around and slowly figured the complex relationships they had with their caregivers, I thought that here was a documentary waiting to be made.
So I proposed this to PSBT: to make a documentary on caregivers to the elderly.
Months passed, as did various deadlines for decisions. I assumed that I was no longer in the running as in most of the film-making world, a 'no reply' means rejection. Though in March 2014, I had been asked to re-submit the project with a budget for shooting on HD, which I did. But again, matters went silent.
In June, 2014, I was in Pune, as an Examiner for student films at an institute, when an old friend called me to say that the PSBT list is out and I think you're on it. I said I would check the website later in the day. A few hours later, I got a call from PSBT asking me to lower the budget of the project and re-submit. I said I was busy but would do it over the next few days.
I re-did the budget, sent it off and soon got a letter saying I had been given the documentary to make.
So of course, I was euphoric.
Then came the next step, the script.
I have applied, unsuccessfully, to PSBT a few times. So when I saw the call for proposals for 2014, I was a bit sceptical. But finally, I did send a few proposals to them, under various schemes.
The Caregivers grew out of my personal position: I'm here in my hometown of Meerut, UP, looking after my mother, who is now 86. Naturally, her friends and my larger family are all people who are ageing (OK, technically we are all ageing with each breath that we take). Quite a few of the people were also living on their own, both with and without 'hired' caregivers.
Having seen these people when they were younger, and now suddenly seeing them as 'old' was an emotionally charged experience for me. As I observed all the people around and slowly figured the complex relationships they had with their caregivers, I thought that here was a documentary waiting to be made.
So I proposed this to PSBT: to make a documentary on caregivers to the elderly.
Months passed, as did various deadlines for decisions. I assumed that I was no longer in the running as in most of the film-making world, a 'no reply' means rejection. Though in March 2014, I had been asked to re-submit the project with a budget for shooting on HD, which I did. But again, matters went silent.
In June, 2014, I was in Pune, as an Examiner for student films at an institute, when an old friend called me to say that the PSBT list is out and I think you're on it. I said I would check the website later in the day. A few hours later, I got a call from PSBT asking me to lower the budget of the project and re-submit. I said I was busy but would do it over the next few days.
I re-did the budget, sent it off and soon got a letter saying I had been given the documentary to make.
So of course, I was euphoric.
Then came the next step, the script.
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