A shaft of light on a shadowy world: Kolkata sneak peek into trafficking documentary | Kolkata News – Times of India

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Leena Kejriwal’s guerrilla art that inspired ‘From The Shadows’

KOLKATA: A city artist who has relentlessly been spraying silhouettes on public walls tagged #missing, an activist who accompanies rescued girls across international borders and a survivor fighting a long and arduous legal battle against her traffickers have inspired an award-winning anti-trafficking documentary titled ‘From The Shadows’ – Kolkata will get to see a curtain-raiser of excerpts from Miriam Chandy Menacherry’s film at Emami Art on Friday evening.
From 2008 to 2013, Leena Kejriwal had done many installation-based art works in galleries. But soon she wanted to get her art out of the galleries. She wanted to start a public dialogue on the issue of sex trafficking using the language of art. It was in 2015 that Kejriwal started her public art project on missing girls. “My silhouettes hit the right note and got amazing responses worldwide. In the opening scene of the film, Miriam says that she found these silhouettes tagged #missing across the country. That aroused her curiosity. That’s what public art should do.”
Explaining how the silhouette of the missing girl drew her to a journey of six years, the director said, “It was like stepping into the dark hole of disappearances led by women who were shining a light on this issue, which is happening every day before our eyes in every eight minutes. The filmmaking process has made me listen deeply to survivor stories, peel away layers and appreciate the power of collaboration to be the only ray of light to tackle this issue. I hope the film gives sensitive insights rather than resorting to the sensationalism that most films on trafficking tend to resort to making these films watched.”
Perhaps this is the first time that such a public art practice has inspired a film in India. “Leena’s stencil campaign has generated massive response on the ground level. She has also designed apps for missing girls. I have not seen a lady in India use public art this way to communicate such a pertinent message. When Miriam offered me to shoot, I found it interesting that a film was following the course of a public art practice in India. In my years of filming, I have not come across such a work in our country,” said cinematographer Ranu Ghosh.
Triparna Bannerjee, who is the film’s impact producer, told TOI that the most gratifying part is that such a project is helping to “accept and embrace survivors” so they no longer face stigma, to “involve boys and girls in community initiatives that are interventional by sharing the inspiring stories” captured in the film and to “discuss and mitigate the role of middlemen in the trafficking nexus – whether the offer of a job or fixing a marriage”. “In Kolkata, we are screening at an art space because the film follows the journey of an artist and how she used a public art project to create awareness on trafficking,” Banerjee said.

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