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Producer: Michal Goldman

In Production

“Babar Ali: When Children Teach Children (working title)” will be a feature-length documentary suitable for broadcast and limited theatrical release about a boy in rural India who is teaching working children how to read and write. The film’s focal point will be Babar Ali’s informal school in rural West Bengal and the changes it is affecting at a local level. Through children and adults connected with the school in various ways, we will move outward to explore other aspects of village life. The entrepreneurial capitalism that is transforming India’s cities has implications for the countryside too.

Babar Ali is now 17. He lives in Bhabta, a village in West Bengal surrounded by rice paddies, mango groves, and fields of jute. Many of his playmates started working when they were five years old, but Babar’s parents, who are illiterate themselves, were determined to send their own children to school. When he was nine years old, Babar began to teach a few other children in the afternoon what he had learned in the morning. At first it was a game, but he kept going, and over the years, the children kept coming. Every afternoon they come to Babar’s dusty yard and study until dark.

Babar’s growing commitment to teaching is a personal response to problems that are international in scope. India is now a global power, and with a population of 1.2 billion, it is the largest democracy in the world. But a stunning gap between rich and poor threatens to undermine its remarkable progress and new wealth. Literacy is key India’s salvation, and India’s constitution guarantees the right of every child to a primary education, but the country has not been able to fulfill this mandate. The majority of India’s illiterate people live in rural areas like Babar’s village.

Meanwhile, Babar’s own horizons, like India’s, are expanding far beyond the village. A BBC story gained him world-wide attention, and he is becoming known inside India and beyond. This December, he has been invited to participate in INK, India’s version of the TED conference, along with people who are genuinely famous, like James Cameron and Deepak Chopra. It’s all a bit daunting for a 17-year-old boy who is trying to hang on to his commitment to the children of his village: he says, “If I don’t teach these children, nobody will.”

Originating producer and director: Michal Goldman

On this project Michal is working with a Partnering Director.
Saibal Mitra is a filmmaker living and working in Kolkata, India, about four hours away from the village of Bhabta. He has directed documentaries and fiction films, including In the Land of Chinnopatro, a feature-length documentary about the poet Rabindranath Tagore. His most recent fiction film, Hanankaal (“Terror,”) is an experiment, part of a series of low-budget films shot digitally and released to select audiences. The development, direction, and focus of Babar Ali will result from the collaboration of Goldman and Mitra.

Editor: Peter Rhodes

Sponsoring Organization: Filmmakers Collaborative