Enterprising Catholic nun connects to youth through filmmaking

By Prasanthi Mandapati

A Catholic nun living in the western Indian city of Mumbai, Sister Josefina Albuquerque, has taken the initiative to dive into the film industry with a cinematic endeavour aimed at the youth of today.

Her masterpiece has been made manifest in a brief, but powerful seven-minute fiction film produced on a mobile phone, in just two days.

Sister Josefina belongs to the Religious of Jesus and Mary Congregation. She is a teacher and is currently the headmistress of St. Agnes High School in Byculla, Mumbai. In addition to being an educator, she had a passion for filmmaking. She lacked writing abilities, but thrived in cinematography.

The Covid-19 lockdown provided her with an opportunity to learn some of the skills required for filmmaking and editing.

When she visited the tribal people who lived in the Aarey forest, Sr. Josefina was intrigued by their lifestyle. Her experience spurred her to shoot the documentary, entitled "Under the Banyan Tree: A Path to Self-Discovery." The film recounts the life of an engineer who gave up financial comforts to live in Mumbai's Aarey forest and educate people to find their true calling by standing up for their rights.

Sr. Josefina received accolades for her cinematography skills when she produced a documentary illustrating the existence of a tribal in Aarey forest.

Sister Josefina Albuquerque receiving recognition for her film

"As someone in charge of youth ministry in my religious community, I observed that our youth invest most of their time on social media. I believed I would only reach them by fortifying oneself with media and digital studies. That’s the moment I decided that I needed to enroll in a professional filmmaking course," said Sr. Josefina, in an interview with Vatican News.

Currently, in addition to serving as a school principal, she has enrolled in the Professional Filmmaking Course at St. Paul's Communication Centre in Bandra, Mumbai. She felt inspired to create a film on the lives of children as a part of the course in professional filmmaking.

Sr. Josefina documented "D for Dumbo" on a limited budget at St. John the Evangelist School in Marol, Andheri, Mumbai. It follows the narrative of Sam, a fourth-grade student who gets derided because he is unable to recount maths tables as quickly as his classmates. However, the boy – dubbed the class dumbo – outperforms his classmates when another instructor assigns them a creative task.

The film received the best award from St. Paul's Institute in Bandra, Mumbai. Sr. Josefina received the award from Naseeruddin Shah, a well-known Bollywood actor. The film is currently en route to the online ALP International Film Festival.

According to Sr. Josefina, the film was done with limited resources and its topic "resonates with everyone on some level. It was a great surprise for me when Naseeruddin Shah highlighted my name and said he identified with the protagonist during the convocation."

She described the award as "recognition and confirmation of my belief that, through integrating my passion for filmmaking and education, I'm confident that I can reach a larger audience."

According to Sr. Josefina, “Jesus used the parable for interaction with the people of the time He lived. In today's context, I believe that films are one of the most effective means for spreading God's Word to the world.”

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”, according to a Chinese saying. And that maxim has become extremely true in the story of Sr. Josefina as she renders her first foray into the world of film.