Students and graduates of the college have been vibrantly promoting the spirit of filmmaking. 'Kafal Pakyo' is a 17-minute short movie written and directed by one of the graduates, Niranjan Raj Bhetwal. The movie made it to 32 national and international film festivals within six months. The students are also making movies and sending it to foreign nationals for review—Min Bahadur Bham's 'Kalo Pothi' for example.
Binod Paudel, CEO and Principal of the college, shares that running a film school in a country like ours is challenging. "Since its inception, the institute is suffering from lack of resources. We don't have enough experts in this field, so we often experience lack of instructors and teachers. We don't have all the required equipments to improve the learning experience of our students. This being one of those fields which parents don't really encourage their children to pursue, we've had to make do with fees just enough to keep the institution running," he shares.
The recent earthquake has added on the challenges of the college as the main college building which was built on a leased land has suffered severe cracks.
"The reconstruction is an expensive project and we don't really have adequate resources for it. However, we've already started the process with whatever little resources we had. An international organization called WeOne has committed to help us by campaigning. Therefore, we are optimistic," Paudel says.
The college also expects help from the government, says Paudel, explaining how the help will be mutually beneficial to the college as well as the government: "I was an associate director for a feature film called 'God Lives in the Himalayas' which was screened in Japan, Korea, USA and few other countries. The movie depicted some of the most beautiful landscapes of Nepal. Some of my international friends watched the film and about 10 of them visited Nepal later. This is just a small example of how movies can help promote tourism for the country. What I want to say is, if the government decides to support us, that won't go in vain."
The current students of the college explain that even though the college has its limitations, they can still make the best of it because "their dream of studying filmmaking would never be realized without this college."
First year student Ankit Poudel says, "I recently read somewhere that there are a total of 20 film schools all over the world, including Nepal. That made me feel happy and proud. Besides, any institution will have its limitations. Even New York Film Academy—the best film school in the world—might have limitations." Filmmaking is what makes Ankit happy, and he says he can't afford to focus too much on what the college doesn't have because it has facilitated them with plenty of resources to learn from.
Rajeela Shrestha, another first year student, adds, "The earthquake has amplified the problem, yes, but we're still positive that everything will work out because our classes are going on and our faculty is trying their best to restore normalcy in the college atmosphere. I'm here to build my team of likeminded people and learn together so we can make a difference in the film industry here, and I'm doing that."
Despite the students' enthusiasm and the fact that Nepali movies have slowly been garnering interest and support from the audiences, the concept of studying films is still quite vague for parents.
Rijan Gajurel, a first year student of the college, explains, "Our parents are supportive of our interest in studying films, but it's an expensive subject and it's difficult to explain to them that apart from monthly fees, we also require money for projects like shooting and finishing up a video. It's a big challenge."
For another first year student Manish Raut, everything comes down to how passionate one is about the subject. "All I know is I'm deeply passionate about studying films. I don't care about the scope or whether it's going to help me make money. Filmmaking makes me happy and that's that," he says.
"With the progress made by the college in the recent years, and with Nepali movies and career in filmmaking finally gaining momentum, we can't let anything dampen our spirits," says Principal Paudel. "We're definitely not giving up," he concludes.
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