National award winning director, R. P. Amudhan and Social activist Civic Chandran were the two prominent spokespersons of this workshop held in VIBGYOR in Thrissur. Though the workshop on ‘Models of Media Activism’ has been introduced for the first time in VIBGYOR, the speakers used the space creatively to share their experiences in the fields of print and electronic media.
Amudhan humbly claimed, “Anand Patwardhan and K. P. Sasi were the inspiration behind my experiments with film-making. Money again for me was never a barrier for making films and I normally was able to find funds within Madurai itself”. He shared to the group his encounters while having to deal with the release of his films, ‘Leelavati’ and ‘Theevravathikal’ which faced political hang-ups. He was driven by life experiences to shoot and record atrocities against dalits and women which have also formed the crux of his subjects. His recent work, ‘Endangered Landscapes’ was screened during the workshop. It drew attention to the villages of Madurai and the issues that embroiled them.
Civic Chandran gave an insight into mainstream and alternate media. Chandran said, “The youth is not influenced by print media. The objective of mainstream media thus, is to find readers. On the other hand, that of the alternative media is to avoid readers.” The lack of youth readership he thus connected, lead to a generation gap. “Alternate media”, he emphasized, “uses the leftovers of the mainstream media meal.” He compared alternate media to avante garde. He predicted the media cycle and said, “When the print media arrived, communication ended. Now with the onset of the visual media, the print media will end”.