DMT (working title)
Funds Needed for Completion: $ 60,000.00
Estimated Completion Date: 01/31/2010
Synopsis
Survivors of human trafficking in India use Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) to rehabilitate others from their individual traumatic pasts.
"DMT" is set in Kolkata India and focuses on one group that is using a form of rehabilitation known as Dance Movement Therapy. While used within clinical settings in the West, DMT is still little known elsewhere and nearly unheard of in South Asia. Kolkata Sanved, a human rights organization based in Kolkata, truly stands out from the rest by using DMT in a daring manner and is achieving incredible results in helping to rehabilit ate survivors of human trafficking and other violent and traumatic abuses. They do so in an unparalleled way by training past victims, who have themselves been rehabilitated with the help of DMT, into DMT therapists. “DMT” documents the extraordinary acts of courage and care coming from those who have so many hurdles coupled with unfathomable pasts and present difficulties. One can not help but look inward to see the dormant potential that lies within.
Budget:
$ 60,000.00
Project's Financial Needs
Your contributions will help facilitate the key aspects of post production and finishing of the film that I can not do myself, such as final editing, color correction, audio mix downs, tape transfers as well as a budget for proper translation services and musical score.
Other financial Support
Grant from Marian Chace Foundation/American Dance Therapy Association
Current stage of production
Post-Production
Estimated Completion Date
01/31/2010
Background
For the victims of violence and abuse living in NGO and state-run homes in India, rehabilitation continues to follow a stale routine - the usual counseling and vocational training in tailoring, block printing and knitting. There are very few innovations in counseling techniques for the victims. For mental health patients in the state run hospitals, little attention is given to the development needs of the patients; they are treated as prisoners living in a jail like environment and denied their basic human rights. As for domestic workers, they often face a monotonous, humiliating and abusive routine with no outlet to express their rights in society. Children suffering from HIV/AIDS often have negative attitudes towards their bodies and their lives and must deal with negative stigma on a daily basis. Children who live on the train platforms and in slums face daily violence and aggression.
In 1996 Sohini Chakraborty started a dance project within Sneha (a shelter and care home for trafficked women and girls run by Sanlaap in Kolkata, India) as a volunteer. For twelve years Sohini experimented with breaking the barriers of traditional dance.
This experiment proved that body movement, when used sensitively, could become a powerful tool for rehabilitation and advocacy. This tool transforms young victims of sexual abuse from being a "rehabilitative victim" to a "proactive advocate" - someone who has made peace within her violated soul and is now ready to voice her concerns through physical movement.
The success of Sohini's work led to the establishment of Kolkata Sanved in 2004 with five founder members who were residents of Sneha. Members communicate in workshops and performances on the issues of trafficking, violence against women, and child exploitation through the intimate and powerful medium of dance.
Today Kolkata Sanved has expanded its program to work in rural and urban India, Bangladesh and Nepal to establish dance movement as an alternative approach to recovery and healing for the psychosocial rehabilitation of victims of violence and trafficking, mental health patients, women and children suffering from HIV/AIDS, domestic workers, railway platform children and mainstream school children.
Kolkata Sanved's self generated curriculum, Sampurnata (completeness/fulfillment) trains survivors of trafficking, exploitation and abuse to become peer educators, advocates, trainers and performers, enabling them to lead their lives with dignity and respect.
Timeline
Pre-production ( March-July 2008)
Production (July-November 2008)
Post-Production (November 2008- January 2010)
Structure
As sensitive as the subject matter is, I needed to be more sensitive in my filmmaking. Careful not to disrupt or intrude on the “healing process” I had to accomplish all the filming alone. By building a rapport yet remaining invisible with the trainers, trainees and the participants, I drew upon my experience as a still photographer to compose a textured tableau, illustrating the day to day challenges and successes of the rehabilitation process within the unique and diverse environments where the trainers held sessions. This visual journey, framed within the beauty, poverty and color of India, will be used to highlight and promote successful forms of social impact and change brought out by ordinary people doing extraordinary things. As I, the filmmaker and we, the intended viewer have no experience in DMT, nor are we victims of human trafficking, the imagery is done from the outside looking in, and the storytelling is done from a first person point of view. This is accomplished by gathering interviews from local human rights activists, outreach organization founders, the trainers and the trainees, mixed with the filmmaker’s personal perspective, thoughts and observations.
By showing the viewers (as opposed to telling) how DMT contributes to the healing process, and by witnessing extraordinary acts of courage and care coming from those who have so many hurdles coupled with unfathomable pasts and present difficulties, one can not help but look inward to see the dormant potential that lies within.
Relying on truth rather than hyperboles and on the now as opposed to the past, I feel that the images and facts gathered during this special and privileged point in time will tell a complete story that does not stigmatize the subject nor will it sensationalize what needs no further sensation. The work of these individuals is righteous, strong, important, thankless and selfless. They will inspire, move and articulate the importance not just of their work, but will further speak to the work that needs to be done in all corners, in all back alleys and in all places where hope has been lost, not yet knowing that it will again be found.
View My Website
