Agam Singh and the Candy Rappers

On Saturday night, his short film The Candy Rappers is showing at Flickerfest, as a finalist in the FlickerUp program for filmmakers under 18.

With a little bit of help, Agam wrote and shot most of it himself. It wasn’t easy to do in a hospital in the middle of the pandemic, his teacher Eliza Johnson said.

COVID-19 meant jumping through “a lot of hoops”, she said, but the hospital understood that “time was precious” for Agam to be able to tell his story.

“It was just myself allowed in, no equipment,” Ms Johnson said. “We pretty much just had to use a mobile phone, I had a limit of two hours to be in the room, and I had to keep a distance of two metres.”

There was a lot of disinfecting, wearing masks and gowns. And it meant that even if they wanted to re-shoot some things, they couldn’t.

While that was frustrating at the time, Ms Johnson now feels those imperfections just add to the story. “It’s really authentic, and it’s Agam, and it’s really special,” she said.

Ms Johnson said she was blown away by Agam’s creativity and natural affinity for both music and film.

“He’d never done any filmmaking before and I couldn’t believe my eyes when he just, without any preparation, took the camera and started asking the most beautiful and intelligent questions,” she said.

FlickerUp programmer Leigh Russell agrees, saying Agam was “brilliant” and that his film is “heartwarming and uplifting”.

Ms Russell said the 2020 cohort of filmmakers had all been resourceful, and there is “a lot of positivity” in the line-up despite times being unusually tough for many last year.

Sadly, Agam won’t be there to see his work on the big screen. Cancer took his life in August, not long after he was able to watch the final edit.

Agam’s mother and the appointed “band manager”, Ritu Singh, said it meant a lot to him to be able to see the movie, and how proud his family was of him.

She said the Candy Rappers gave her son a reason to wake up in the morning and have something to be excited about each day.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said she was “beyond proud” of Agam, his family and the staff “who supported him through his heroic battle”.

“We have fantastic teachers across NSW, and some of the most amazing are those that teach in our NSW hospital schools,” she said, which “are critical to support the education needs of our students while they are receiving treatment.

“They also mean students can stay engaged in their education, and offer a connection to the world outside the hospital.”

Ms Mitchell congratulated all of the FlickerUp finalists, saying it’s “an incredible achievement to have your work recognised at this level”.