The 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which took off on Sunday, garnered a lot of attention from the people of Goa. A number of people attended the inaugural ceremony to see celebrities, movies, etc.
Although IFFI has been known for filmmaking and has been a celebrity affair for all these years, this year the festival has been particularly progressive by including a basic acting course as well as a smartphone photography course for autistic children.
Parents of several special children enrolled them in this course and saw their children learn new things about smartphone photography from an expert filmmaker. The course started on November 21 and will continue until the 28th.
Children who had come along with their parents to attend this course took a deep interest in it. The trainer Ajmal Jami, who is a visual content specialist and a filmmaker provided important information to participants about smartphone photography. These children were thrilled to learn about the various things they could do with their smartphone camera.
GT had an opportunity to interact with the parents of these special children. Bhanudas Narvekar, a taxi operator by profession from Panjim, said that he came with his son Vedant. He felt good about this course since his son was enjoying this activity.
Bhanudas informed us that his son is fond of clicking pictures with the phone, and his wife encourages his son to take pictures at home. He was confident that his son would definitely benefit from this course.
Rosha Khatib, the mother of 21-year-old Sahil, had come all the way from Mapusa so her son could reap the benefit of the course. She said her son studies at Owl House, Aldona, and they learnt about this course from the school.
“Sahil is extremely interested in animation, editing and photography. The concept of including a smartphone photography course for special children was wonderful. These children will surely learn more skills needed for photography," she said.
Another woman, Radhika Ramaswami from Vasco, had come along with her daughter Tanishka. She said that her daughter was very eager to learn.
Therefore, she believed that enrolling her daughter in this course would benefit her to acquire more skills related to smartphone photography. Radhika added that this course would give these children good exposure.
Meanwhile, when contacted, Ajmal Jami said, “My experience teaching these special children with autism has been extraordinary, out of the box. I have seen some artwork that neurodiverse children have done that is absolutely stunning.”
Jami said that the neurodiverse may find it difficult to express themselves socially, but when it comes to art forms, their artworks are among the best.
“One could feel and see that some strong process has taken place. In this smartphone photography course, we will show them the effective use of smartphones to capture subjects and the world around them with a theme.