The Bubbleman
9:03 | With English Subtitles
4/28/2019 | 4:45 pm
This short film will be screened prior to JIRGA
SYNOPSIS
A day in the life of a veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan as an electrician and now impacts students’ lives by blowing bubbles in the Texas State campus.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Students look at him as a bubble Jesus who has resurfaced to earth encouraging them to blow bubbles along with him and refilling bubble solution into their empty containers. They call him “The Bubble Man”. He is also responsible for a phenomenon called “Bubble Believers” on campus.
I would like to present some statistics. Lifetime thoughts of attempting suicide are reported to occur among 5 percent of graduate students and 18 percent of undergraduates (According to Suicide Statistics Survey conducted by Emory University). The main reason behind all these suicides is STRESS. I’m not saying he can drastically affect these stats. But maybe he can affect in a very small way, one student at a time. By helping them get through their semesters. Bubbles are a great way to de-stress. Bubbles are therapeutic. Bubbles are important.
With a minimal crew, I filmed The Bubbleman doing his daily activities of preparing bubbles, going to campus and blowing them there. I captured student’s reactions to it. Smiles on their faces. Then through interviews, I explored his past in Afghanistan. About his philosophy in life.
DIRECTOR’S BIO
Sachin Dheeraj is an engineer turned filmmaker from India. His fascination for films grew during his Bachelors education which made him explore it's art & craft through courses on Satyajit Ray & Science Fiction. While pursuing his Masters in software engineering at Arizona State University, he started making short films based on the works of Rabindranath Tagore & Saadat Hasan Manto, which he thought would resonate with the contemporary society. He also attended the Summer Filmmaking Initiation workshop at Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), Czech Republic where he had the opportunity to collaborate with peers from different cultural backgrounds. Through cinema, he seeks to explore literature, science, philosophy and life.
CREDITS
Directed by Sachin Dheeraj
Produced by Sachin Dheeraj
Music by Phi Bui
Film Editing by Sachin Dheeraj
Art Department Utsav Chadha