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DramaComedyDocumentaryAnimationExperimentalMusic
Vitya the Raddiwalla (Recycling Man)
Shyla Lee
average rating from 8 members 
       
documentary | 2006 | Yorkshire & Humber | India/Marathi | 10 min
Published 03 Apr 07
A documentary set in rural India following Vitya a Raddiwallah(recycling man).
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synopsis
'Vitya' aims to do three things: explore the environmental theme of recyling; give an insight into the social landscape of rural India; and draw an engaging portrait of a man who lives a full yet uncomplicated life.

Vitya comes across as a likeable character. Both confident and humble, generous and honest. By giving an insight into Vitya's life the film also helps to communicate to audiences the atmosphere within a rural Indian village; low-income entrepreneurship within the rural economy; small-scale industry within Indian towns; and the intimate nature and traditional values of the Indian family.
short fact
"The film was made in an attempt to capture the intrinsic nature of Indian rural life in a way that would engage and appeal to western viewers. We thought that giving a portrait of a character would be the best way to highlight important environmental issues, rather than attempting a more factual approach. Vitya was very natural in front of the camera, and it was a pleasure to follow him through the villages and surrounding jungle and to relax with him and his family in their traditional clay house. As this was our first film we encountered challenges common to those exploring film production: inadequate sound equipment, inadequate script, language and communication problems and filming from the back of a motorbike on Indian roads!"
crew
  • nrration Annie Griffin
    		•
    format
    digital
    © 2006 Luke and Shyla Lee

    comments
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    comment by Prem  Ananth
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    posted Apr 4, 2008

    Hi,

    i missed this show on the TV and have been trying to watch it online, but in vain. Looks like there is some tech snag. Could you please fix it - not only for me but for others as well. I was told that this is a excellent work - being a environmental professional I am curious to watch this video.

    Please visit us at www.3rkh.net

    Thanks,
    Prem
    comment by Santosh  Yeolekar
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    posted Dec 28, 2007

    Having lived in the Maharashtra, & being a villager myself, was able to relate to this film & it's message very well. Nicely taken though your first film. Except the western tune sometimes. The recycling bit is huge in India though due to reasons not imagineable in this side of the world.
    comment by Craig  Morrison
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    posted Apr 26, 2007

    A great follow up to your first short film...I found the subject very interesting.
    Vitya,himself,comes across as a really likeable character.
    Shame regarding the problems of being unable to use your original choice of music (due to copyright) as this was one of very few minus marks among the many plus marks with this documentary. Looking forward to the next one!
    comment by Shyla  Lee
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    posted Apr 9, 2007

    This was our first documentary made with absolutely no funding. None of the people involved in the production were paid. The original music I had used during Vitya's journey to Chandrapur was from an old Hindi film. It was perfect for the scene but it would have cost us a lot of money to use it. The bakery scene had music playing in the background from a recent Hindi film. Again we had to get rid of it as we would otherwise run into copyright problems. We had to therefore use music that was composed for us at no cost. We didn't get much luck from any Indian music composers so had to use western music.
    Dubbing! Well...we ran into some serious sound problems during Vitya's interview. We had no option but to fade his voice out and dub over it! This has been a great learning process for us. We will bear in mind all the technical errors made during the production of Vitya when we will be filming next...hopefully in India again!
    comment by Account Cancelled -  New User with former account
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    posted Apr 9, 2007

    Arrgh! Dubbing! I detest dubbing with passion. It used subtitles right at the end, so why not all throughout the film? The sudden emergence of western music didn’t fit in well. Intriguing subject, nevertheless.

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