College to screen students' films

With her eyebrows knit closely in concentration, Kritika Purohit runs her fingers over an embossed diagram of a human body to understand its anatomy.

With her eyebrows knit closely in concentration, Kritika Purohit runs her fingers over an embossed diagram of a human body to understand its anatomy.

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The 18-year-old physiotherapy student of GS Medical College, Parel, learns her lessons a little differently.

The loss of eyesight at the age of eight almost eclipsed Purohit's dream of becoming a physiotherapist.

But technological devices such as the Braille typewriter, a screen-reading software (JAWS) and a device that can produce embossed models of any diagram (Picture in a Flash) have allowed her to pursue a career that was presumed to be beyond her capacity.

Purohit's journey, captured in Seeing Things Differently, a documentary made by students of Social Communications Media department (SCM) at Sophia Polytechnic, will be screened along with three other student documentaries at the polytechnic's four-day annual exhibition that begins on Thursday.

It will also showcase students' photography and social awareness advertising campaigns.

"We wanted to show how technology has opened up new avenues for the visually-impaired," said Arlene Mathiah, who was part of the group that made Seeing Things Differently, which won the Miditech award for the Best Documentary.

The films have been shown at film festivals and on news channels, said Jeroo Mulla, head, SCM.