Jayalakshmi, a producer and director who worked for the BBC for 11 years, was awarded a top prize at the Commonwealth Vision Awards 2007 for her film 'Paper! Paper!'.
LONDON: G.D. Jayalakshmi, a producer and director who worked for the BBC for 11 years, was awarded a top prize at the Commonwealth Vision Awards 2007 for her film 'Paper! Paper!' at a gala ceremony at the Royal Commonwealth Society here on Thursday night.
'Paper! Paper!' is a celebration of initiatives to recycle paper in India. According to Jayalakshmi, it 'stands as an example and a symbol of traditional Indian values - under threat today but still surviving - to conserve anything that may be of use, to let nothing go to waste'.
The London-based Jayalakshmi was highly commended for the 90-second work, which celebrates the many ways in which paper is recycled in India. It was her interpretation of the Vision Awards theme - 'Changing communities, greening the globe'.
Jayalakshmi received her Award from Vision Awards guest of honour, Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon. The ceremony was presided over by Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the president of the Royal Commonwealth Society and a former Commonwealth Secretary General.
The Commonwealth Vision Awards 2007 have seen a strong Indian presence, with another entrant of Indian origin who hails from Fiji being highly commended.
Raltesh Chandra's film 'The Gill Family', which was co-directed with Robert Zraick, focuses on a 'typical family' that lives under water, due to the effects of global warming.
Chandra has over 10 years experience as a cameraman/editor and Zraick is a writer/director with over 30 years experience in film and television production in Hollywood. He is currently the head of the computer animation department at the Fiji Institute of Technology.
The top prize in the 2007 Vision Awards went to Jacqueline van Meygaarden, a filmmaker from South Africa, for her film entry, 'Free Energy'.
Five other short-listed entries came from India (2), Pakistan, Antigua and Barbuda, and Canada.
The Commonwealth Vision Awards, launched in 2001, are jointly organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, and encourage the making of short films on Commonwealth and international issues.
In June 2007, broadcasters and independent filmmakers from across the five regions of the Commonwealth were invited to submit initial entries by providing a written scenario for a short film on a chosen theme, between 30-90 seconds in length.
The winning entries will, from January 2008, be broadcast Commonwealth-wide, particularly on Commonwealth Day, March 10, when activities will also focus on climate change and global warming, within the theme, 'The Environment - our future'.
An initiative of the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, the Commonwealth Vision Awards, now in their seventh year, are supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the British Council, the Commonwealth Foundation, the BBC World Service and the British Board of Film Classification.
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