Title – Midnight Blues
Directors Name – Bipuljit Basu
Producer name – Abhijit Dutta ( India)
Co-Producer name – Partha Debnath (USA)
Language – English and Bengali
Genre – Short Hybrid
Duration – 26 minutes
Format – HD
Aspect Ratio – 2:35.1
Sound - 5.1 and Stereo Mix
A French film Maker comes to Kolkata to make a film on brothel children. She does not meet Hiru ever, a brothel Kid who spends time puttering about along the slum roadside from morning to midnight. On one hand, the filmmaker explores a community’s truths and plights, on the other hand Hiru visits every nook and corner of a brothel as part of his daily routine, keeps celebrating his underprivileged childhood.
The sex worker mothers and the youth in Kalighat brothel, Kolkata have designed the film production. They formed a film production house called CAM ON and became the Line Producer of this film. They took part in technician roles in production and post-production part i.e. assisting in writing screenplay and dialogue, makeup and costume, production control, location, casting, acting, and all. Their effort has made the film a social participatory film. Later, their brothel film initiative is being filmed into an international co-production Documentary Cinema ‘Redlight to Limelight’ in 2021.
Know MoreProduction Company – Bindubot Communication, Touch Narrative, Marx Film & VFS Film
Country – India, Estonia, Latvia
Length – 100 min
Format – 4K
Planned Premiere Date – 01.10.2023
Genre – Factual Cinema
Director –Bipuljit Basu (India)
Producer –Nilotpal Majumdar (India)
Co-Producer – Max Tuula & Maria Gavrilova (Estonia) & Uldis Cekulis (Latvia)
Associate Producer –Sayanti Bhattacharya (USA), Somnath Ghosh (India), Sanket Mandal (India)
The sex workers and their young children form CAM-ON, a film production house in the Kalighat brothel, Kolkata. Despite the opposition, they are determined to become film technicians, resist prostitution among the second generation, strengthen the inter-personal relationships, and aspire to turn the redlight area into a professional film colony.
In 2019, I get to know Rabin and his youth group who were wonderful, young amateur filmmakers and children of sex workers in the poor red light district of Kalighat. They were creative amateur filmmakers who uploaded their short dynamic videos on YouTube. They joined my film as a Line Producer. Soon the sex working mothers teamed up with the youth and together they formed their own production house Cam-On. Starting a flmmaking initiative in a brothel was seen as problematic. In the industry, no one wanted to take Cam-On seriously and Covid-19 made the situation even more difficult. However, Rabin and his team, the sex worker mothers, do not give up. They continue their film house despite the pandemic and social challenges, trying to get recognition as film technicians. Their initiative reinvents the brothel’s interpersonal relationships and is empowering them gradually towards acceptance by mainstream society. Rabin and the sex worker mothers plan to produce a film again. Developing community issue-based inside stories and making innovative zero-budget films are their foray. Apart from just uploading it on YouTube they plan to organise a day-long community screening, inviting film professionals and sex workers from other parts of the city as their guests. One of the crew members is 19-year-old Afsara, who is forced into prostitution by her step-father. Instead, she wants to work in film and considering her vulnerability, Rabin tries to support her and protect Afsara from her father. In Redlight to Limelight I will be exploring the community of Kalighat through Rabin and Afsara's eyes. Will they be able to finish their films and overcome the variety of social challenges? How does Afsara cope up with the threat of prostitution? How does the film initiative improve the community’s interpersonal relationships? Will the community be able to screen their film in the city? Will Cam-On be able to turn their brothel into a film colony for good?
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