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| SxSW ’08 Interview – Shot in Bombay director Liz Mermin |
Shot in Bombay: At SxSW '08! |
by Jason Whyte
“A fast-paced, often surreal documentary with a charismatic cast, SHOT IN BOMBAY goes beyond the song & dance tinsel of "Bollywood" to explore the darker realities of an unforgiving city and it's best-known industry. With unprecedented behind-the scenes access to a star-studded gangster flick, the film explores the thin lines that separate crime from punishment and fiction from reality in this edgy metropolis. Featuring Bollywood super-star Sanjay Dutt and heart-throb Vivek Oberoi.” Director Liz Mermin on “Shot in Bombay” which will be screening at this year’s South By Southwest.
Is this your first film in the at SxSW? (Or the first film you have) Do you have any other festival experience?
Yes, first SXSW. I’ve been to many other festivals with previous films, including Toronto, Tribeca, IDFA/Amsterdam, & many others in the US & abroad.
Will you be coming to Austin to attend the festival? If this is your first time, what do you expect to discover? If you have been here before, what do you love most about the city?
Yes, coming to Austin – have been there before for an Austin Film Society screening. I was only there for a day (& it was the day after Bush’s reelection, so a depressing one) – looking forward to seeing more of the city & have heard fabulous things about the SXSW audiences.
Could you give me a little look into your background (your own personal biography, if you will), and what led you to the desire to want to make film?
I’ve been making documentaries for 10 years now. I was in academics (anthropology, film studies) but I hated speaking to such small audiences; I also got bored with writing and fell in love with the process of playing with images & music & more nuanced narratives. It’s a powerful way to explore foreign/unfamiliar worlds – I see the films as reproducing my own process of discovery, with all the excitement & confusion & bizarre crossed wires that come with unfamiliar experiences.
Growing up, you were no doubt asked the eternal question “When I grow up I want to be a …” Finish this sentence, please!
Lawyer (human rights of course) or a shrink.
While you were making the movie, were you thinking about the future release of the film, be it film festivals, paying customers, critical response, and so forth?
Of course. It was a TV commission but I was always thinking about festival life & possible theatrical release. Also wanted it to work for Western & Indian audiences, Bollywood addicts & people who’ve ever seen an Indian cinema in their lives.
How did this project come to fruition? If you could, please provide me with a rundown, start to finish, from your involvement.
I was approached by Little Bird, because they wanted to make a documentary about Bollywood for the Storyville strand of BBC; I was editing “Office Tigers” at the time, another India-based Storyville commission, and the BBC commissioning editor Nick Fraser sent them my way. I proposed using a making-of spine to get into deeper issues about life in Mumbai, and Nahrein Mirza, the producer, & I went to over to find a film that would have us. When we heard about “Shootout at Lokhandwala,” we realized we should do something about the new, edgier filmmakers – the ones inspired by Tarantino & Wong Kar Wai, We also so this as a way to get at the tangled relationship between film stars and crime, Bollywood and the underworld, without tackling the issue directly & getting ourselves killed.
BBC loved it, the Sundance Channel got on board, and I went off to Bombay for 3 months to shoot. Edited in London over the summer, myself & my editor on two systems side by side, round the clock, and finished it by September. The film had a UK premiere at the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival (a festival I can’t recommend highly enough to doc makers) and did a theatrical run at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, for the most part to great reviews (thankfully!). SXSW is our North American premiere - we’ll see how the film translates on this side of the Atlantic.
What was the biggest challenge in the production of the movie, be it principal photography or post-production?
Production was a nightmare because nothing went as planned for the production we were following, so nothing went as planned for us. They went a month over-schedule on their shoot, and so we did as well. Editing was also a challenge – as usual, tight budgets, not enough time, mean you’re working round the clock. And the narrative on this film is particularly challenging – it’s basically three stories wrapped into one. Then there were issues of language (my Hindi is almost non-existent) and various cultural differences (ie., the director shouldn’t carry the tripod) that caused glitches here & there, but it’s all part of the experience….
Please tell me about the technical side of the film; your relation to the film’s cinematographer, what the film was shot on and why it was decided to be photographed this way.
We shot on a Sony Z1, since it was a doc & we had to be able to run around & wanted to be unobtrusive. The DP, Vikash Saraf, I found in Bombay – he knew many of the people involved in the film we were following, so that made people more comfortable. He also worked really hard & loved the challenge of this kind of film, having never made an observational doc before. Since we went over schedule (& therefore risked going over budget) I ended up shooting about a third of the film myself – fortunately I’m also very comfortable with that camera, and I worked very closely with Vikash on questions of style and approach – leaning over his shoulder, looking at the monitor, whispering in his ear, & generally driving him nuts – so it worked out fine.
Talk a bit about the festival experiences, if any, that you have had with this particular film. Have you had any interesting audience stories or questions that have arisen at screenings?
This film has had rather polar responses – people have been either really worked up about it or left cold. Fortunately our audiences in London, where it premiered in December & did a theatrical run in Jan, tended towards the former. Favourite part of the festival experience is definitely the high you get from seeing people react to your film; least favourite is the anxiety before the first screening when you think you might be on the verge of some horrible humiliation. Other fav part of festivals is meeting other directors.
Who would you say your biggest inspirations are in the film world (directors, actors, cinematographers, etc)? Did you have any direct inspirations from filmmakers for this film in particular?
Various general influences. Documentary: Herzog & Jean Rouch, plus the obvious big names (Maysles, Wiseman, Errol Morris ). Fiction: Charles Burnett, Godard, Kubrick, Hitchcock, Michael Winterbottom, Soderburgh, Djibril Diop Mambetty, and Christopher Guest … to name a few. No single inspiration for this film; it’s a combination of many influences.
How far do you think you would want to go in this industry? Do you see yourself directing larger stories for a larger budget under the studio system, or do you feel that you would like to continue down the independent film path?
I’ll try anything once.
If you weren’t in this profession, what other career do you think you would be interested in?
Writing, human rights work, or law.
Please tell me some filmmakers or talent that you would love to work with, even if money was no object.
Chris Doyle. Killer Films.
Do you think that you have “made it” in this profession yet? If you don’t believe so, what do you think would happen for that moment to occur?
No. I don’t think you’ve ever “made it” in docs, though I suppose some might say that being able to support yourself making them is “making it “, so in that respect I guess I’ve made it. But in terms of being able to get decent budgets for films I want to make, it’s still a struggle. A film that made a lot of money at the box office would probably help. An Oscar wouldn’t hurt.
How important do you think the critical/media response is to film these days, be it a large production, independent film or festival title?
It’s very important to me as a filmmaker. It doesn’t seem to make much difference in how many people go see a film – at least not for docs.
If this film could play in any movie theatre in the world, which one would you choose?
I have a sentimental attachment to the Angelika (the one in NY of course).
What would you say to someone on the street to see your film instead of the latest blockbuster playing at the local goo-gooplex?
Reality is much stranger than fiction – and often much funnier. Or: You’ll never see India the same way again – and India is, as they say, the future. Though I’m not sure that’s the audience I need to be chasing….. there are so many film audiences in the US - that’s a luxury that most other countries don’t have. The US CAN sustain an art-house film without competing with Mission Impossible III.
No doubt there are a lot of aspiring filmmakers at film festivals who are out there curious about making a film of their own. Do you have any advice that you could provide for those looking to get a start?
Breaking in is the hardest part – get yourself a job with a company you admire, doing anything, and learn who’s who & what’s what & eventually you’ll get there. Or decide to change careers.
And finally…what is your all time favourite motion picture, and why?
I don’t do all-time favourites… too many caveats.
This film is one of the many features that will be screening at SxSW this year from March 7th to 15th. For more information on this film, its screening times and for more information on SxSW, point your browser to the official website. – Jason Whyte, efilmcritic.com
link directly to this feature at http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=2416
originally posted: 03/01/08 01:56:14
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