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Headline: Daydream fuelled Sundance documentary. B.C. film-maker wanted a story about two children living radically different lives. By Kevin Griffin. Source: Vancouver Sun. Tuesday, January 14, 2003 at http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/story.asp?id=898603AE-02F3-459C -92C3-B263066D7CF6 A photograph of Jason DaSilva can be found at the website. Text: An idea born daydreaming on the bus between the University of B.C. and Tsawwassen has resulted in a local film-maker creating a short film that's been chosen for Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival. Called Olivia's Puzzle, the 12-minute documentary by Jason DaSilva depicts the different lives of two seven-year-old girls: one who lives in Ladner, and the other in the village of Aldona, Goa, the former Portuguese colony in India. DaSilva's film will play five times at the Park City, Utah film festival known around the world as one of the premiere venues for independent film-makers. It will be shown several times along with The Murder of Emmett Till, a Stanley Nelson documentary about the 1955 murder of an African-American teenager in the Mississippi Delta which helped spark the civil rights movement in the U.S. DaSilva's film has already won first prize at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival. It premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival and has shown at several other film festivals around the world. DaSilva, 24, conceded he doesn't really know that much about Redford -- something which surprised his mother. But he said when he travels to Park City, he wouldn't mind meeting the famous actor and director -- and using the festival as an opportunity to market his film. "It'll be fun -- after all the festivals I've been to, I've learned how to schmooze really well," he said. The Sundance Institute was founded in 1981 by Redford to showcase independent films. By 1985, it grew to encompass an existing film festival in Utah and officially became the Sundance Film Festival in 1991. This year's festival runs from Thurday to Jan. 26. DaSilva got the idea for Olivia's Puzzle while on the bus home after a sociology class at UBC. He thought that the best way to show how socialization and the environment shape individuals would be to make a documentary about two children living in radically different situations. He first wanted to make a film about two boys but couldn't find the right subjects. With help from his family, who are from Goa, he was able to find two girls: one is his cousin Olivia Athaide who lives in Ladner. The other is Reshma Sham Kamulekar from Goa. DaSilva's grandmother Irene also played a critical role in the making of the Olivia's Puzzle. Since Reshma doesn't speak English and DaSilva doesn't speak Konkani, the native language of Goa, his grandmother acted as the all-important intermediary who translated for everyone. The film shows the two seven-year-olds at school, talking with their friends, the foods they eat and how they see themselves in the world. The puzzle, DaSilva said, is how Olivia views her own culture and her awareness of it as a child. DaSilva said one of the major contrasts between the lives of the two children is when they talk about the future. "Olivia says that when she grows up, she might be an artist or a dance teacher. Reshma says she'll get married, have kids and work in the fields," DaSilva said. "Reshma won't have that opportunity to do anything different." DaSilva said he doesn't see himself sticking exclusively with making documentaries. He'd like to move back and forth between fiction and non-fiction -- citing Mira Nair, who started out making documentaries and has also made the hit feature films Salaam Bombay! and Monsoon Wedding. Interested in comics as a youngster, DaSilva added sound and motion to his narrative skills while at Emily Carr School of Art and Design. For several years he also created Good Tasty Comic for Discorder, the magazine published by CITR, the student radio station at UBC. More information on DaSilva and Olivia's Puzzle is available at www.oliviaspuzzle.com ============================ Don't forget - you saw it on GoaNet!
