Brazilian filmmaker and musician Andre Luis Oliveira inaugurated a workshop on cinema, conducted as part of Vibgyor-Mazhavil Mela 2010, in Thrissur on Tuesday. Talking on the occasion, he said that cinema was never a career option for him. I did not want to be stuck with the filmmaker's status that would have prevented me from dabbling in many other things including music therapy for children. At the same time, I know filmmaking is not an easy task. It is difficult in every sense. Making films is not easy in any country. Filmmakers from all over the world would agree to this observation," he added. Filmmaker K.P. Sasi spoke about the role of documentaries and short films in engineering social change. 27 years ago, when I entered filmmaking, people's movements did not largely buy the idea that cinema was a medium that could be used for social campaign. In contrast, just about every day now, I get calls from activists demanding documentation of their struggles. It shows that activists have understood the power of documentaries. We should create a wider space for documentaries and short films in society and facilitate better access to them, he said. The five-day workshop is being led by Sujata Babar and T. Muraleedharan.