Mathy

On the Lot is a reality show competition produced by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett[1]. The show, which airs on FOX, features filmmakers competing in weekly elimination competitions, with the ultimate prize of a million dollar development deal at DreamWorks. On the Lot premiered May 22, 2007, and airs Tuesdays each week.[2]

The official On The Lot site gathered 12,000 submissions from all over the world [3] and the submission deadline was February 16, 2007.[4]. These 12,000 submissions yielded 50 semi-finalists. The contest structure is similar to that of American Idol, with the initial episodes narrowing those semi-finalists down to 18 finalists. After the audition stage, the program will comprise of a 1-hour show where movies are screened (”Film Premiere”) followed the next day by a half-hour results show (”Box Office”). Viewers can vote each week for their favourite directors, which will result in the elimination of the directors with the lowest vote totals. Votes can be made online at thelot.com, in addition to landline calls and Verizon text messages, and is permitted for two hours after the show.

Originally scheduled for seperate episodes on consecutive nights, the “Film Premiere” episodes are now scheduled to air on Tuesday nights at 8:00PM/7:00PM CT, with voting results as part of the following week’s episode, as of May 31, 2007[5]. The show is also aired in Canada (on CTV)[6], on People+Arts in Latin America, on FOX8 in Australia, on STAR Movies[7] in Asia, and on STAR World in India.
Source: Wikipedia

Yesterday happened to catch the tail-end of the ‘On The Lot’ program. And felt lucky because of the contestant is an Indian-American and she is somebody I’d heard about.

It’s Shalini Kantayya. And she has directed ‘A Drop of Life’ starring Nandita Das. Shalini Kantayya is one of the five contestant whose film was selected for the next round and was roundly apploaded by all. All the other contestants, who were leaving the show selected Shalini’s ‘Laughing Out Loud: A Comic’s Journey’. It was also selected as the favourite film by one of the judges. Good Show Shalini.

Shalini Kantayya in the ‘On The Lot’ : http://www.thelot.com/contestants/view/?id=14
Note: You can watch her movies here

Shalini Kantayya’s website: http://www.7thempiremedia.com

A Drop of Water: http://www.adropoflife.tv

Here’s something written by Shalini Kantayya:

As I became aware of the mounting global water crisis, I realized that it represented a clash of cultures—between a culture that values water as a shared sacred resource and a corporate culture that regards water as a commodity to be bought and sold.

Water is rapidly becoming the oil of the 21st century, and women are likely to be the most impacted. A UNIFEM report states that “in most developing countries women are responsible for water management at the domestic and community level. It was also estimated that women and girls use more than eight hours a day traveling from ten to fifteen km. to transport between twenty and fifteen liters of water in each trip”. Often the responsibility of water collection keeps girls from attending school and furthering their education.

After living many years in both India and America, my work seeks to explore how water conflicts in the future will affect the already vast disparities between the “First World” and “Third World” and the shared experiences of women across the globe.

“One Struggle” aims to convey the growing life-threatening divide between people who can afford this vital resource and those who cannot, and the common struggles of women across the globe for self-determination.
Source: http://imaginingourselves.imow.org/pb/Story.aspx?id=526&lang=1&g=0

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