Good Pitch Karnataka: Connecting Good Films to Good People

Fifty-year-old Vijayshree, worked as a garment factory worker in Bengaluru. With meagre wages and long working hours, Vijayshree struggled to make her ends meet. She gathered all her courage one day and decided to quit her job to embark upon a journey of entrepreneurship.

She started a beauty parlour in a small room. It’s been 21 years since then and she hasn’t looked back. Hers has been a remarkable story of grit and determination, however, stories like hers seldom make the news.

A project called Her Stories by Co-Media Lab is bringing these stories in the limelight. Aimed at making and distributing such short videos about the women who went against the grain and emerged as beacons of hope and success for their community, Her Stories will be bringing out many more heartwarming stories of women.

The videos will be made by women belonging to the marginalized communities, trained to tell stories of their people, increasing the media literacy of community and emancipating the women further.

Her Stories is one of the 15 unique projects that have been shortlisted for Good Pitch Local, Karnataka. It is a day-long networking event showcasing short-form non-fiction media projects that are deeply relevant to Karnataka and its people.

The event to trigger a change

Good Pitch Local Karnataka is a six month program which is being hosted for the first time locally in India.

The final 15 projects were selected after a rigorous selection process conducted by Doc Society, India partner, Indian Documentary Foundation and local partner OurGroundWorks. Over 110 applications were received via multiple mediums from across Karnataka.

“It has been an invigorating experience supporting the evolution of these pitches, represented by a set of passionate and driven individuals and entities that have, through this process, heightened the role and significance of mediamaking in their respective projects”, reflected TaraRao, Founding Director of Ourgroundworks.

The shortlisted projects will get an opportunity to share their work and vision with a huge audience. The audience will have corporates, media & journalists, foundations, non-profits, CSOs, campaigners, active citizens, creative studios, filmmakers and media makers, artists, social media influencers, Govt. influencers amongst others in 170+ attendees’ strategically curated room as per the needs and goals of the 15 projects

By bringing leaders, change makers, media persons and influencers together, the event will  enable all these agents of change to come together in real time to talk to each other, to forge new partnerships, and to tell stories that matter in this moment, in this place.

“This event will show how important it is to have film/media content if you want to accelerate change with your projects,” said Sophy VSivaraman, CEO, Indian Documentary Foundation – hosts of the Good Pitch India program.

The interesting projects

Every shortlisted project is unique and touch upon various social and environmental issues and solutions. For example; Tale of a River is a documentary film to present the real story of the Netravati river diversion project. The filmmakers want to create awareness and thus build a movement against this project.

Another project, ’I Never Ask For It’ is a five-year effort to end victim blaming by building testimonies through their clothing.  The project is a safe space for survivors of sexual assault across Karnataka, but for the survivors, the audio testimonials, of similar sexual assault survivors can become a mode of connection and healing.

One Battle Won, Many to Conquer touches upon lives of sexual minorities and what will abolition of IPC 377 mean to them.

End Manual Scavenging is  a multimedia campaign (feature stories, photo essays, videos, events) to end the life-threatening, inhumane and casteist practice of manual cleaning of sewers in a targeted manner in Bengaluru.

These are just a handful of many interesting ideas that will be presented at this exclusive event.

The past impact

During the Good Pitch India national event in 2014, Driving with Selvi, a feature-length documentary on India’s first female taxi driver, Selvi, caught many eyeballs. A panelist Alfred Arambhan gifted a cargo truck to Selvi, enabling her to launch a transport business with her husband.

Dasra, India’s leading strategic philanthropy foundation, invited Selvi to speak to key international philanthropists and change-makers at their Philanthropy Week. Selvi was further connected to various charities and business that helped Selvi achieve her goals.

This is just one of the many success stories that have emerged out of Good Pitch.

“Good Pitch is not just an event, it’s a full day immersive storytelling experience for all individuals who are interested to see change happening in their own state,” added Sophy.

Good Pitch Local Karnataka is an invite-only curated day-long event, beginning at 9:30 am on 12th March 2019 at Lady Jehangir Kothari Memorial Hall, Bengaluru. For more details, check out their website.

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