12-12-12: Something special to remember the human bonds and love across the globe

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: This December 12 (12-12-12) may not have any
scientific significance, but scores of people around the globe
including Hyderabad made the day memorable through short video
films on their experiences with fellow human beings, animals and
nature. It was a 24-hour time capsule of human moments on the
earth on this numerically special day.

A number of Hyderabadis registered with the www.onedayonearth.org
that provides a unique platform to document the world’s story for
short-filmmakers, students and other inspired citizens and to record
the human experience over a 24-hour period on December 12. Hundreds of
people from across the world participated in similar two events
earlier on 11-11-11 and 10-10-10.

This time Hyderabadis, who have registered with the “One day on earth”
project, documented education, human bonds, labour, begging,
sanitation and city’s water bodies. This December 12 was the third
simultaneous filing event occurring in every country of the world. The
United Nations and over 100 nonprofit organisations are also part of
this unique programme.

“One Day on Earth, a grassroots online community of filmmakers,
creates a unique geo-tagged video archive as well as an annual feature
film. Together, we showcased the amazing diversity, conflict,
tragedy, and triumph that occur in one day,” said the event organisers.

The global collaborations result in a feature length documentary and a
shared archive of diverse media, detailing both the joys and struggles
of everyday life. The past two events yielded a combined 7,000 hours
of footage in over 90 languages and created a growing online community
that now has 30,000 members. The worldwide community has also been
activated to distribute the final film, including the production of
screening events in over 160 countries, breaking a world record for
movie premieres.

Subhash Rawat, one of the Hyderabadis involved in the project, said
“I filmed it for the first time. I was not clear what to shoot but showed love
and relation”. Sashikanth Pochimcharla will film nature
while A Sridhar Kumar concentrated on friendship. S Mujeeb
launched a campaign through his short video film on the need to
adopt beggars and end begging.

Another Hyderabadi, Amar Mitra, focussed his film on truth and
beauty. “It is a perspective and if we do not change our attitudes,
and be the same selfish… and do not fight evil, worse things will
happen,” wrote Vikas Krishna in his post.

Daksh 'Duck' Srivastava of Delhi captured culture but since it is
not a festival time, he looked for something different in the
outskirts of the national capital. “Fusion of old and new... hmmm…
something to ponder on”, he added. On the other hand, Tina Mukerji
Mehta filmed the temples of Maharashtra.