Filming the Facts
Victoria Sandison
9th June 2008
North London Arts’ student Sapna Dabasia tells us about the making of her first short film, ‘The War of our Time’, previewing at Free Range this June
If Sapna Dabasia is nervous about the first major showing of her short documentary on the invasion of Iraq, she is hiding it well. Behind the confident smile, has she been anxious about the reception to this sensitive topic? “I was before the show,” admits the petite filmmaker. “But so far the feedback has been very positive, so I’m a bit calmer now!”
Sapna’s interest in making documentaries is fired by her enthusiasm for “showing people hard facts about the world.” This latest project is a 17-minute piece depicting varying views on the war in the Middle East, including - perhaps surprisingly to a British audience - an interview with a young Iraqi in favour of the war, contrasted against another with a Londoner who is against the invasion. What was her motivation behind the making of this film?
“I like to choose subjects that are major issues affecting world right now, so Iraq was an obvious choice. More than that, I wanted to aim this film at young people of my age (18-25) who might not know or understand much about the war and to show all sides of opinion on the events.”
I wonder if it was hard to stay emotionally detached and not to let personal opinion creep into her work. “It was,” admits Sapna. “But then I went away and talked to other people, my tutors, got feedback and came back to the work with fresh eyes. Then I was able to readjust the balance.”
Her greatest challenge, though, was less one of neutrality and more the length of the film: “deciding what to put in and what to take out was a nightmare!” Does she feel that there are advantages to creating a short film over a feature-length documentary? “Definitely. With a short film, the audience doesn’t get bored, you can hold their attention. Keep it compact, short and sweet and your work can have a lot more impact.”
