Children shine at environment film fest

new delhi: green oscar recipient mike h pandey’s shores of silence got everyone debating over the mindless slaughter of whale sharks; niret and nikhil alva’s lions of the gir, brought man and lion in close proximity; romulus earl whitaker’s king cobra, which also won the silver tree award, explored the world of venomous snakes. but whitaker admits, in those close encounters with crocodiles and water lizards, he was just using the power of visuals.‘‘i have a fetish for cobras. but here, i was trying to tell a story. it’s biology in a computer chip.’’ these are some capsules from india’s first national environment & wildlife film festival — a fest with a difference, where along with big names, the children too, showcase their efforts to change the world. ms leela litterbug and mr moneybag aren’t just imagined characters. they are real too. that’s exactly what class eight students of jiva public school said in their documentary, the adventures of ecogirl and environman. then there was another children’s production, mrituchakra, which attacked industrial pollution and asked the world why children had to drink the polluted water of pauna river. ‘‘a strong documentary made by children between 12 and 16 years, shot in maval district of pune,’’ said dr n bhaskara rao, chairman, centre for media studies, who organised the film festival. it took twelve hours for a caterpillar to turn into a butterfly — every minute of which was filmed by gurpreet sapal and his team. he can even tell you the difference between a shy and aggressive butterfly. for three months, sapal did nothing else but went chasing the butterflies, so he could make biology easier for children. he was baffled when a four-year- old girl in the audience asked him: ‘‘does a butterfly have ears? how many years does a butterfly live?’’ ‘‘even i was puzzled. but i had made an impact,’’ says sapal. the spunky monkey too, had a lot to tell the youngsters. ‘‘two monkeys learn how to live like a urban man. we celebrate the monkey, as he learns how to live with cars and cable wires. they are the naughtiest things around, the most wicked,’’ adds whitaker. for those who want to teach their children about the environment through nursery rhymes, there’s jack aur jill ki kahani by audio-visual research center, hyderabad. for amar kanwar, producer of award-winning king of dreams, it’s a dream to stop ecological destruction in the world — envisaged in his many faces of madness, which won the golden tree award. ‘‘it’s time we woke up to the realities of destruction and save our environment.’’