United World College of South East Asia’s students nominated for the THIMUN film festival in Qatar

Recently, Mahima Singh and Sneha Srinivasan’s film, “Ek Kahaani” was nominated for a prestigious award at the THUMUN Qatar Northwestern Film Festival held annually in Doha,

Qatar. This film festival serves as a medium to encourage thriving young filmmakers and directors globally to explore prominent issues effecting modern society and to further create powerful advocacy films varying from two to eight minutes to shed light on such pressing and controversial affairs.

Ek Kahaani depicts the numerous financial and emotional challenges experienced by migrant workers and concludes with the overall message of the advocacy film: the common misconceptions regarding migrant workers and with a simple statement; “Respect them.“This is done through the portrayal of the cyclical nature of mistreatment of workers. The film itself is a compilation of interviews of multiple workers who describe the reason of their transfer due to the necessity to support themselves and their family, and a comparison of their living conditions and wages in India and their host country,

Singapore. By presenting this side of a construction worker, the film intended to illustrate the perspective of the transient workers who are often disregarded as society’s dirt and often associated with great contempt.

The major issue faced during the making of the film was to get the migrant workers to share their life experiences on camera, as they were nervous regarding the implications of discussing their agent and travels on a recording. However, the apprehension the workers felt as a result of the potential consequences that could be faced upon getting interviewed only proved the extent of this global and local concern. Both Mahima and Sneha hope that their advocacy film will have a positive effect on society’s perception of migrant workers.

Upon receiving the news of nomination, Mahima and Sneha were very excited and eager to participate in the eventful schedule of the Qatar Film Festival, and particularly look forward to the courses and workshops by expert filmmakers. This year's festival will be held from April 2-4, 2015.