It isn’t every day that you come across a woman in her fifties who decides to learn how to dive to explore corals and be inspired to paint them. This is the story of Uma, the protagonist of Priya Thuvassery’s Coral Woman, a movie that focuses on climate change. The film will be screened at the inaugural edition of the Chitrashaala short film festival being organised by Village Square in partnership with Transform Rural India (TRI) and the Film Critics Guild, on August 3. Sensing that Uma’s tale was a story that should be shared with the world to throw light on the threat to corals, Thuvassery decided to make a film on the theme.
Coral Woman thus chronicles the journey of the filmmaker with Uma, a homemaker and certified scuba diver, as they explore the underwater world and the threat to coral reefs of the Gulf of Mannar.
Delving into themes related to environment and gender
Thuvassery, a Delhi-based independent documentary filmmaker and television producer, works around the themes of the body, environment and community from a gender and feminist perspective. Her love for documentaries began while she was pursuing her master’s at Jamia Millia Islamia.
“I fell in love with cinema and I thought I wanted to be a filmmaker,” Thuvassery told Village Square.
Her independent films include work like Khanabadosh (2009), My Sacred Glass Bowl (2013), Survey Number Zero (2016), Coral Woman (2019), and City Girls (2021).
Her crew comprises mostly women, including camerapersons, cinematographers and technicians.
“When it comes to cinematographers, it’s not that we don’t have highly talented women technicians. It’s just that they get fewer opportunities,” lamented Thuvassery. It is such collaborations that, in her words, give a “female gaze” to her films.
Filming of Coral Woman
What started as a chance phone call blossomed into a beautiful friendship between Thuvassery and Uma, the protagonist of Coral Woman.
Watch: Chitrashaala – Village Square’s short film fest trains the lens on rural India
“I didn’t know anything about corals or underwater filmmaking, but I fell in love with Uma’s story as a 50-year-old homemaker who decided to pursue swimming and diving just to see corals,” said Thuvassery, who hails from Kerala. Through Uma, she learnt about the deteriorating situation of corals in the Gulf of Mannar.
Underwater filming, however, was no easy task. For a non-diver like Thuvassery herself, it was difficult to coordinate filming in the ocean. Moreover, it was a challenge for the crew to communicate with Uma underwater.
“On day one, the team dived, we had everything planned, but when they went under water, they could just get Umar’s flippers and hand, and this was footage unlike anything that I had planned. I wondered what happened. They said they couldn’t communicate with her, they couldn’t talk underwater. And Uma didn’t have a sense of the camera so everything went haywire,” recalled Thuvassery.
In the face of such a problem, they came up with the innovative idea of using signage and practising shots on land before filming underwater. “We practised just like in the theatre,” revealed Thuvassery, adding that the opening sequence of the film was not scripted, but was inspired by Uma’s anecdote.
“When she (Uma) came back after diving, I asked her to tell me something which would help me to visualise the first scene, since I had not experienced it. We held hands, I wiped her tears, and she said what she wanted to say. Then I weaved my opening sequence from her words,” explained Thuvassery.
Recollecting fond memories from filming, the director talked about the friendships she developed with Uma as well as the crew. She also talked about cinematographer Nitasha Kapahi, who masterfully managed underwater filming for Coral Woman.
Challenges in bringing environmental issues to the big screen
Films like Coral Woman may bring to light wrongful activities of big corporations, Thuvassery said. Such instances were also faced by the film crew.
Also Read: All you need to know about Village Square’s Chitrashaala short film festival
“There was always this constant fear that someone would stop you and take the camera away,” said Thuvassery.
Also, she believes that it is important to give a people-friendly angle to issues and data related to climate change, which is most often scientific and complex in nature. This is why Coral Woman has a humane angle to the storyline.
“If I made a film about the heavy bleaching of corals, no one would watch it,” added Thuvassery, who is currently the director at Chambal Media, an organisation that produces multimedia content on youth, gender, tech, culture, environment and climate change with the aim to bring the perspectives and involvement of women on the margins into the digital revolution in India.
Climate advocacy and women’s empowerment through cinema
According to Thuvassery, being environmentally conscious is a choice that can be made only when we know about the stories and events happening beyond our own lives.
“Sometimes we must get to know about these stories, the bigger picture and the role we are playing. You get to live 100,000 stories by watching cinema,” she said. “Before making Coral Woman, I didn’t know about what was happening to corals.”
Also, when it comes to climate change, women are the most affected by it and so are people who come from marginalised backgrounds, Thuvassery pointed out. And these are the issues that she brings to the fore through her films, because they don’t often find a place in the mainstream media.
“Change can only happen when collective thinking action begins,” said Thuvassery. “And films can be a medium for that.”
Also Read: Chitrashaala – Student winners of short film competition announced!
Village Square’s Chitrashaala short film festival focuses on stories from rural India.
Date: August 3, 2024
Venue: Alliance Francaise, Lodhi Road, New Delhi
The lead image on top shows Priya Thuvassery, the director of the film Coral Woman. (Photo courtesy Priya Thuvassery)
Aditi Sahoo is a third-year BA student at Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi. Aditi is passionate about communication, writing and research.
