A National Workshop was organised on ‘Science Communication through Visual Medium’ by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication in association with Vigyan Prasar, an autonomous body under the Department of Science and Technolgy, Govt. of India. At the workshop, the students of Media were taught the nuances of filmmaking and the importance of Science films on various topics was such as environment, climate change and health etc.

Eminent resource persons Mr Nimish Kapoor from Vigyan Prasar and Mr. Kulbhushan, Director & Cinematographer from Doordarshan taught the students visualization and camera handling techniques. The students were encouraged to make science films. Films are an excellent medium to take science to the masses.

Thereafter, a group of students under the direction of Dr. Anshu Arora, Associate Professor, Media Studies, started working on the documentaries. A group of students prepared a documentary film on Organ Donation titled ‘Ek Kadam Roshni Ki Or ‘.The team comprised of Ananya Gupta, Yusra Khan from first year BAJMC and Rahul Singh Latwal and Kushal Sharma from Final Year BAJMC.The film got selected for India International Science Festival (IISFF 2016) to be held in Delhi in December.

The objective of the film was to create awareness on the issue of Organ donation and remove misconceptions from the minds of the masses.Though the film could not bag a prize, it was selected among the top 13 films and was well appreciated by the audience. The issue of Organ donation is the need of the hour. The director of the film was felicitated during the program and was given a Merit Certificate.

26 students of Journalism and Mass Communication also attended IISF. The students were awarded with certificates and registration kits. They had a great learning experience as they watched science films, conducted various experiments and got to interact with various scientists and filmmakers including Mike Pandey, Wildlife Conservationist and documentary Film Maker during the interactive sessions held at IISF.

The International Science Film Festival (IISFF 2016) was organised at NPL, New Delhi, from 8th to 11th December, 2016 as a part India’s biggest science festival -IISF (India International Science Festival 2016 ) by Ministry of Sciences, Govt. of India, CSIR, Vijnan Bharati, Vigyan Prasar, NPL and NISCAIR. Hon. Minister, Science, Technology & Earth Sciences, Govt. of India Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Mr. Ofir Akunes, Hon. Minister of Science, Technology & Space, State Of Israel inaugurated the film festival. Science Films from 10 partner countries were screened.

Films on Arctic Mission from Norway Films on Innovations from Israel and Sweden, Block buster film ‘Gravity’ from USA, films from Max Plank Institute Germany, Russian Centre of Science & Culture were screened during the event.