Night time experiences in public spaces, especially for women, can be starkly different in urban and rural India. In Chhote Shehron Ki Lambi Raat (Night time in small town India), being screened in the short documentary competition category at the 14th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK), 14 young filmmakers, most of them women, chronicle their experiences of venturing out with cameras at night in India’s small towns.
The towns they have chosen to shoot are in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan. Most of the filmmakers are also from these towns and are evidently novices in the craft, as can be gleaned from their narration. Yet, what they document is important, with which women from different parts of the country would easily identify. Some of them capture on camera their experience of the difficulties of a night commute, while for a few others, public spaces at night time itself is a novel experience.
