Title – Midnight Blues
Directors Name – Bipuljit Basu
Producer name – Abhijit Dutta ( India)
Co-Producer name – Partha Debnath (USA)
Language – English and Bengali
Genre – Short Hybrid
Duration – 26 minutes
Format – HD
Aspect Ratio – 2:35.1
Sound - 5.1 and Stereo Mix
A French film Maker comes to Kolkata to make a film on brothel children. She does not meet Hiru ever, a brothel Kid who spends time puttering about along the slum roadside from morning to midnight. On one hand, the filmmaker explores a community’s truths and plights, on the other hand Hiru visits every nook and corner of a brothel as part of his daily routine, keeps celebrating his underprivileged childhood.
The sex worker mothers and the youth in Kalighat brothel, Kolkata have designed the film production. They formed a film production house called CAM ON and became the Line Producer of this film. They took part in technician roles in production and post-production part i.e. assisting in writing screenplay and dialogue, makeup and costume, production control, location, casting, acting, and all. Their effort has made the film a social participatory film. Later, their brothel film initiative is being filmed into an international co-production Documentary Cinema ‘Redlight to Limelight’ in 2021.
BIPULJIT BASU
Writer/ Director
ANIRBAN MAITY
Editor
Abhijit Dutta
Producer
Partha Barman
Sound Designer
Ranajit Gharai
Art Directors
Pravatendu Mondal
Director of Photography
From red light to limelight
The film-maker Bipuljit Basu collaborates with youngsters from Kalighat to make what he claims is the first participatory film in a red-light area in Kolkata, but more importantly, he provides them an opportunity to reimagine their lives.
What they need is recognition
Tell us something about “Midnight Blues”. Where do you plan to go with the film? How did you come across Cam-On (the group of young amateur film-makers)? What was it like working with these young people from Kalighat?