Pitt alum creates film collage of the human condition

An adolescent boy sitting at a desk chair fills the screen. ‘My name is Tom. I’m from Chicago…. An adolescent boy sitting at a desk chair fills the screen. ‘My name is Tom. I’m from Chicago. This is my video blog,’ he says. Tom goes on to tell the story of a surgery he had as a toddler to fix his lazy eye. With confidence rarely found in people twice his age, he explains two desires: for people to see things from his point of view and to spend all his time with his dad. Moments later, viewers find out that his father is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The scene, titled, ‘Snapshot: Travails of My Father,’ is one of six short films comprising Pitt alum Praveen Vatt’s ‘Different Shades of Human Life.’ Vatt, who grew up in India, came to the United States in 2000 for school. He created the movie ‘to explore different facets of human life,’ as Vatt said in an e-mail interview with The Pitt News. Each short has a different theme, ranging from hope and laughter to pain and heroism. ‘Different Shades,’ which will soon be available on DVD, has appeared in various film festivals, including Kansas City (where it won audience choice and best actor awards), One Night Stand, 24 Hour, Tallgrass and Great Lakes. Vatt’s film career kicked off after college when he started doing freelance work for commercials and music videos and formed his own film company, Vatt Pictures. His interest in movie making started early. ‘I grew up in a small town in Visakhapatnam, India. Small town, big dreams, I guess. As a child I would make up characters and act out scenes with friends and family,’ explained Vatt. Watching movies at the local theater became a hobby, as well. ‘I couldn’t afford a VHS camera of my own, so I borrowed one from a friend and started making videos over the weekends. That’s where the real filmmaking bug hit.’ Immersing himself in as many projects as he could get his hands on, Vatt fine-tuned his skills and began ‘Different Shades.’ ‘ ‘I like to make movies about real incidents and situations,’ said Vatt. ‘For instance, ‘Snapshot: Travails of My Father’ is inspired by my best friend’s grandmother who suffered with Alzheimer’s and recently passed away. These stories interest me, and I feel it is important I tell them.’ Anthology films like Pratt’s are becoming increasingly popular, with ‘New York, I Love You’ set to be released early next year on the heels of ‘Paris, Je T’aime.’ Both movies are composed of a series of shorts about love. Producers Emmanuel Benbihy and Claudie Ossard plan to make similarly formatted films about cities around the world. ‘Short films are a form with purpose,’ said Vatt. ‘It’s fun to make a story that has a beginning, middle and end in 15 minutes. It’s challenging to develop characters in that short of a period.’ Aside from completing ‘Different Shades’ and attending various film festivals, Vatt credits school as a pivotal point in his career. ‘I believe education and collaborating with other creative people is very important,’ said Vatt. As for plans for the future, Vatt says his hope is to ‘revisit some of these short movies into full-length features. These projects over the last few years have really helped open me up creatively and pushed me to start thinking of a future where feature films aren’t the primary source of entertainment for people around the world.’