How a teacher’s advice at IB graduation inspired filmmaker Avantika Hari to break boundaries with her work.
From the archives: IB World magazine regularly highlights graduates of the IB Diploma Programme. Avantika Hari, Emirates International School in Dubai, was featured in January 2011.
Winning Best Film in the English Language at India’s National Film Awards would be a nerve-wracking moment for any filmmaker. But it wasn’t receiving her prize in front of a crowd of dignitaries that concerned Avantika Hari. “I was too busy hoping I wouldn’t trip in my sari,” she says.
Avantika’s film Land Gold Women doesn’t make easy viewing. It explores the ‘honour killing’ of a British teenager, told through the eyes of her doting but conservative father. The film has earned a number of accolades, including the Purple Orchid Award for Best Film in Singapore and the international Indie Fest’s Best of Show.
Avantika’s inspiration came from a newspaper report. The title is drawn from the Arabic proverb ‘Zan, Zar, Zameen’; the three things man would kill to protect. “I couldn’t get my head around the idea that a father or uncle would kill members of their own family for family honour,” she says.
Avantika’s time studying the Diploma Programme at the Emirates International School in Dubai prepared her to follow her ambitions. “The Diploma Programme was crucial in developing my critical thinking skills,” she says. “I learnt how to look at two sides of an issue and come to my own unbiased conclusion. This was very useful when writing about such a sensitive subject.”
Advice from a teacher, she says, still motivates her. “When I graduated, my Diploma Programme Coordinator gave me a poem by Oriah Mountain Dreamer called ‘The Invitation’. The last line is: ‘I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.’ That has become a personal spiritual quest.”
After Dubai, Avantika studied for an undergraduate degree in the USA and a Masters at the London Film School, where her passion for filmmaking was first recognized with an award for Hat Day, a 90-second commercial for the Commonwealth Foundation. Avantika says her ability to tackle sensitive issues delicately stems from her experiences at an IB World School: “The Diploma Programme instilled a sense of empathy with regards to the issues that surround our daily lives.”
Today, Avantika runs content creation company A Richer Lens from her home in Mumbai, but is in high demand after festival screenings of Land Gold Women. NGOs use the film to educate people on the subject of honour killings, while the Metropolitan Police in London use it at training events.
Now working on a political satire, the inspiration drawn from IB teachers is never far from Avantika’s mind. “My IB English teacher also gave me the gift of freedom to have my own opinion and be proud of it. I owe a lot of who I am to both these women.”
This story originally appeared in the January 2011 issue of IB World magazine. Are you an IB graduate? Join the IB Alumni Network by visiting www.ibo.org/alumni.