This is an opportunity that the United States Department of State has been putting forward for filmmakers around the world since 2009 and this is what Anup and Shree are targeting for, that one break![break]
The Democracy Video Challenge (DVC) started in 2009 with Nepal´s Tsering Choden winning the competition from South and Central Region. This year, Nepal saw a straight drop in the video submission in the contest but two videos were selected as the top finalist. Anup Poudel, 20, and Shree Gurung, 27, are the hopefuls in the run.
Using his Panasonic video camera, Anup Poudel has been shooting since he quit engineering studies to pursue his dream of film making. His parents didn´t approve of this, and still don´t, but he says “you got to follow your dream”.
For Anup “Democracy is black” and he supports saying, “All the colors in Nepali religion and culture has a meaning and for me, when all colors live in peace and harmony, there is democracy and that´s just what I´ve tried to portray in my video.”
For Shree “Democracy is our way of life”. He says, “Everything you do, from eating, walking, working, talking to sleeping, everything is democracy.”
Everybody will have a different definition for democracy and that´s what democracy is all about. To have a voice, to have freedom of speech and to be free.
“I knew about the competition from the US library and made a video for it,” says Anup, who also won the Asian Development Bank´s Climate Change Video Competition this year.
“Technically, I think, this year videos lack quality but conceptually we have gone a notch up,” says Anup. On the contrary, Shree says the videos are more artistic this year as compared to last year´s videos including the winning video.
Shree, who works with multimedia, says he found about the contest from Tsering, last year´s DVC winner. “I had plenty of videos from the past five years, from riots to cultural celebrations, everything, and I put them together and I had a video,” shares Shree. Whenever he had an idea, he sat down to work on his video, he adds.
Nepal has some gifted filmmakers who are coming up with opportunities like DVC, but it still lacks the quality that needs to be in the international arena. Though the videos this year might have been artistically more alluring, it still lacks in the execution part.
However, DVC has given an opportunity and our two Nepali lads have seized the opportunity and have climbed up to being the finalists in the contest. Rest is all up to you to vote for the video you like. Republica wishes both of them the best!
Message from Tsering Choden
Nepal is brimming with talented filmmakers, and many, who have found their niche, are already getting noticed and applauded around the world. It´s all about that one break, but, while many of us search for opportunities, we sometimes tend to bypass the ones that present themselves.
The Democracy Video Challenge is one such opportunity and personally, I was disappointed, even a little surprised, at the lack of participation this year. In fact there has been quite a slide. Not only is this a platform to display your vision as a filmmaker, Nepal, as a struggling democracy, could do with a few more voices expressing their opinions through film.
Just recently the finalists of the Democracy Video Challenge 2010 was announced and I was happy to note that out of the three finalists in the South and Central Region, two are Nepali. Congratulations to Anoop and Shree for getting this far. Now it´s as democratic as it gets - the finalist with the maximum number of votes will win. I urge each and everyone to watch the videos and cast your vote for the video that you think deserves to win. This could be another proud moment for Nepal - it´s now in your hands.
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