Since her passion for film production first struck, senior Tanisha Kapoor has traveled the world as part of a team filming and producing a documentary about the people in Afghanistan called “Baywatana.”
In 2016, Kapoor began working with a group of filmmakers as part of a film camp, which first sparked her interest in film production. In 2019, they officially became a non-profit organization called Niksham TV, which led Kapoor to become more involved.
In October 2022, as a sophomore, Kapoor joined the production team to start working on her first documentary as a producer.
This production team consists of nine high school students who were excited to work hard when they were assigned the task of producing a documentary on human rights. The team then decided to film a story covering refugees displaced by religious oppression in Afghanistan, filming in various locations in both India and Afghanistan.
“I want people to know [the refugees’] stories because we had such a hard time finding them since they are not in general media at all,” Kapoor said. “We chose this story because no one knew about them at all.”
Along with the immense amount of research that Kapoor and her team went through, Kapoor also had to juggle schoolwork with production work.
“From February to July was probably the hardest that I have ever worked because not only was I a sophomore in high school, but I also had my first AP class that year,” Kapoor said.
Because the team consisted of only teens, much of the footage was shot by others in Afghanistan and was sent to Kapoor and her team. Still, the team traveled to other locations for filming and producing.
“I was missing weeks on end of school to go to London, Canada, India and every weekend for around two months we would leave on Friday and come back early morning Monday,” Kapoor said.
Kapoor is grateful that she had her family to support her with this life decision and overjoyed that her sister, freshman Prabhnoor Kapoor, was able to act as a part of this exciting piece of Kapoor’s life.
“I was proud that she was my sister,” Prahbnoor Kapoor said. “She made it very important for us to learn about our [family] history.”
At one point in the production, Tanisha Kapoor went to India to do research and filming and brought her family along.
“She showed me how smart she really was [in India] in her work on the production team,” Prabhnoor Kapoor said.
Time management was essential for Kapoor to be able to handle this type of work, but it was especially important for her to raise funds for the thousands of dollars that were spent on the equipment and stock footage for the documentary.
“We bought new cameras, new lights, new sound systems, just so later we can publish it on Netflix and Amazon Prime so everyone can see it,” Kapoor said. “It’s not out right now because of the cost… we don’t have sufficient funds yet”.
The documentary also hit Kapoor’s heart hard and she took away many life lessons.
“I never really understood how good I had it in life until I saw the people in Afghanistan and what they were going through,” Kapoor said.
Now that the filming and production is over, Kapoor’s work is still ongoing. Since the documentary is not yet published, setting up and attending screenings is one of the most important parts of her work now.
“It was a learning process for children and even teens,” Prahbnoor Kapoor said. “I remember seeing people, children even, crying at just how impactful this was for them [at the screenings of the documentary].”
While Kapoor continues to attend screenings and work to distribute this film, she looks forward to working with the team again to film her second documentary.