Media Release

Mangaluru, Feb 11: The undergraduate department of Journalism of St Aloysius College (Autonomous) organized ‘Shooting Stars 2018’, a national level filmmaking, photography and documentary seminar and workshop on Saturday, February 10.

The inauguration was held at 9:30 AM. The chief guest for the event was national award winning filmmaker VK Prakash, who has made films in Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi. 

The guests of honour were critically acclaimed Tamil filmmaking duo Pushkar and Gayathri, credited with films like ‘Vikram Vedha’ and ‘Oram Po’.  Fr Dionysius Vaz SJ, rector of St Aloysius institutions who was the president of the function, Dr Praveen Martis SJ, principal of the college, Dr Melwyn S Pinto SJ, HOD Journalism, staff coordinator Jishnu S Menon and student coordinators Earl Bryan and Ananya Sneha were present on dais. 

Chief guest in his address opined that artists must perform even if only one guest is present. 

In his presidential address Fr Dionysius Vaz SJ expounded on the importance of perspectives in life and cinema. 

Dr Praveen Martis SJ quoted anecdotes of Walt Disney and remarked that cinema is the mirror of ourselves and society. 

The first session was taken up by Pushkar and Gayathri Pushkar. Expounding on the democratization of filmmaking the duo stressed on the importance of finding ones voice.

‘Art is never objective’, said Pushkar. Gayathri remarked that a stream of existential thoughts were prevalent throughout their films. 

Documentaries and short-films submitted by students of various colleges were screened. 

The afternoon session was taken up by Prakash. “The thrill of creation is to do what you like to do,” he stated. 

Screening various iconic advertisements, he provided an insight into the diverse world of feature and ad filmmaking. 

Responding to audience queries he laughed, “The best way to combat pressure is by gaining pleasure from it.” 

The valedictory function was held in the evening. The dignitaries on the dais were the chief guest and the guest of honour. The president of the function was Dr Alwyn D’Sa, Vice Principal of the administrative block. 

In his presidential address, Dr D’Sa compared sports as a metaphor for life. Lauding the department for their efforts, he said, “Creative thinking aligned with critical thinking is the need of the hour.”

The winners of the various competitions were felicitated. 

The theme for this year was ‘Cut-Copy-Paste’. The seminar aimed at helping budding filmmakers showcase their work on national platform.