Sister Josefina Albuquerque
By Prasanthi Mandapati
Sep 7 2023
A passion for filmmaking and education led Sister Josefina Albuquerque, a Catholic nun living in the western Indian city of Mumbai, to create a space in the film industry to bring together the youth of today, through her faith-filled, 7-minute fiction film produced on a mobile phone in just two days.
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.
“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.
