Animated reality takes you through the ordeals of gender-based violence

A Bumblebee flits through the undergrowth in a dense forest and the frame of a cuteasabutton bunny ambling in follows But soon enough vermilion flames clog the background and you know that you are not watching a childrenrsquos cartoon movie mdash not even a violent one A moving voiceover of a 13yearold takes you to the Kayah State in Myanmar where she recalls growing up amidst sounds of gunfire exchanged between military and ethnic armed groups On her way home from school one day she meets a man who lures her to the woods and rapes herLimbo is the story of a 19yearold woman who is raped by her uncle and the struggle to break her silence and bring up a son born from the sexual assaultThis is the chilling plot of Kayah Lily one of the four powerful animated documentaries from Myanmar released under the title Stand Up for Women Stand Up for Peace The project is an initiative by the Yangon Film School in collaboration with Mumbairsquos sand art animation artist Debjani Mukherjee and filmmaker and Midday columnist Paromita Vohra This January they were invited to Yangon by the film school which is an NGO to select and mentor students from across the conflictridden country to make documentaries on firsthand accounts of genderbased violence in MyanmarA humanitarian independent activist from Shan State shares her journey of how she battled personal challenges to carve a path for herself in the film WaveThe idea behind the initiative is to help audiences to understand that such violence is not a private affair but a matter of social concern and that peace and security are essential in order to create a society in which womenrsquos lives are respected and protectedHome is about a woman living with her family in a camp for internally displaced people She recalls how war changed everything and dreams of returning to her villageWhile Vohra trained the students in collecting and recording stories from survivors residing in camps and other regions for three weeks Mukherjee over the next six weeks took the process further by helping them create shorter edited versions of the recordings developing storyboards and mentoring them in various forms of stop motion animation to make the four documentaries This Saturday the films will have their first public screening in IndiaDebjani Mukherjee mentors students at the workshopldquoFor such sensitive topics it is difficult to shoot direct documentaries Yet these stories need to be told and sharedrdquo says Mukherjee explaining the choice of the mediumThe first two weeks she recalls were all about warmup sessions where she helped students find a connection with the stories ldquoWe watched a lot of films made on similar subjects the world over I also shared with them stories from Indiardquo says Mukherjee But to see such stories come from almost every family residing in camps shocked herThe films have been made using various forms of stop motion animation including paper cutsldquoOne more thing that I hadnrsquot anticipated was that many students were supportive of the current political ideology in the country even if they were not supportive of the methodsrdquo says Mukherjee pointing to the plight of the Rohingyas ldquoBecause there is a crisis of higher education and jobs in the country the government is showing them a picture of other people eating up their cake And they have no way of seeing the larger picturerdquo she addsBy the second week she took a more emotional view to the mentoring process and removed the political context consciously so the students could understand the magnanimity of the situation from a humane point of viewDebjani MukherjeeldquoThatrsquos one more reason behind the project to sensitise the students For them to become the medium of sharing these stories with the world they have to be passionate about the subjectrdquo shares MukherjeeAnd thatrsquos perhaps what the role of art is mdash to step in where dialogue proves ineffectiveON September 22 830 pm AT Harkat Studios Aram Nagar Versova Andheri WestLOG ON TO insiderin ENTRYRs 200Catch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates