Vienna – Schiele, Klimt and Waber

Have been travelling all over California and now Europe.  Vienna was a surprise.  I wasnt planning on taking the trip when suddenly I got an email from Hannes Kollmann from my Redondo Beach days in Los Angeles.  Austria got added to the itenary.

A minute after my arrival in Vienna I get a call from my producer Pierre Assouline.  He is planning to come to London the 10th and 11th and we are going shopping for casting directors and also for my lead for Ánushree´.  Raj Pippalla introduces me to a casting agent in London as well and I start to set up the meetings.

The girl that Vijay Singh suggested emails me back and I plan to meet her in London.  She seems almost perfect for the part.  Well, I am keeping my fingers crossed.  Itś always trying to find a needle in a haystack. However (as Prakash Jha once told me), the needle is sometimes at the top of the haystack.  I am standing for that.

My art show has been announced for April 3rd in Frankfurt.  Got an email from Irene Balmanoukian about it. It was in German and could not understand a word except my name and Ireneś.  I have no idea what to expect, but I am excited and cannot wait.  I leave for Frankfurt on 29th morning from Wien.

As much as I am enjoying my European trip, I can wait to get to Hyderabad and start work on Anushree full on.  At Canserrat during one of my low phases, artist Halle Kareem (Oslo) told me that I would have to find some way of getting horny about my film project all over again.  Somewhere along this trip – Meeting Vijaya Singh and seeing footage of a possible Ánushree´, Pierre coming to London to help cast, meeting various filmmakers and artist in Paris and Vienna etc. has all started to wake me up to my project in a whole new way.

I am planning to visit Sigmund Freudś museum today to see his famous couch.  maybe he can analyse why I am feeling the way I do. Why travelling has this kind of effect on people.  Why it changes a human being in so many profound ways and with such speed. Why you meet a part of yourself that you cannot meet when you are in one place.  All questions for Mr. Freud.

David, an artist in France told me that big things happen in a small way.  The jump is almost silent and it all happens slowly in small steps.  I can see my film getting made that way.  Silently in small steps.

Next post will be from Frankfurt.

Luv,

Aparna

The Year of Kathryn Bigelow and her Boys

Yes! I saw her walk up the podium and get her Oscar and yes I cried. I hugged Erin Ploss Campoamor who was sitting next to me and I was in Diana Romero’s house in Echo Park while all this happened.

In 1998 I started on my path of being a filmmaker. I had no idea what that meant or would make me do. All I knew was that I was aligned. My first job was (interestingly enough) on Erin Ploss Campoamor’s film – ‘April in the Morning’. She was directing the film and Pablo Proenza (now her husband) was her cinematographer. The shoot was in Berkeley. I was the Art director on the shoot and my first job was to get a couple of gold fish in a bowl for the shoot. I called the 2 fish ‘Big Eyes’ and ‘Small Eyes’. They died on me soon after the film due to my in experinece and overfeeding. I mourned their loss and decided to never get fish as pets ever again. too heart breaking. The good thing that came of that shoot was my friendship with Erin and Pablo and the genesis of my first film – ‘Nupur – Ankle Bracelets’. Erin was my first supporter and started as a producer on my first film. So it was great that when I saw Kathryn win the Oscar, Erin was there sitting next to me. We jumped up and down like school girls. Yes, it was possible and would remain a possibility for all eternity. A woman director can win in that very male category. She can be the creator and what’s more she can do it with a film about men. How awesome is that!

I met Diana Romero at Erin’s party. She was part of the NALIP gang and graduated from AFI producing program. We kept a nice friendship over the years and things were pleasant. Then one day she and I had tea at Glendale Manor and she told me about her goals and aspirations. She wanted to make big budget studio films. She wanted to ride the tiger. Yes! I understood. i saw how big she was during that conversation. She looked beautiful and powerful. I suggested that she should just go for it. I was trying to be encouraging. I meet her a year later and she is working for Lions Gate and had optioned a book and is gearing up for a film. It was at her 2010 Oscar party I saw Kathryn Bigelow receive her 2nd Oscar for producing. We screamed like banshees and hugged like crazy. It was a very emotional moment.

Yes, I make a big deal of it. Yes, It is feminist. Yes, it’s crazy. And I will tell you the reason why.

When I received the 2001 Film Arts Foundation grant for New Directors to make my first film, we were given a year to submit our finished film to fulfill the conditions of the grant. Gail Silva, the then director of Film Arts Foundation told me something that caught my ears – The women grant receivers always completed their films on time and submitted them. The men filmmakers, it was touch and go. some did and some didn’t. She wondered why that was. The answer to me (even then) was a no brainer. Women got very few opportunities and when they did one, they squeezed every ounce of themselves to make sure they took full advantage of the opportunity, because if you did not come through on your one opportunity, chances were that you would not get another. Men, in contrast did not have that fear or pressure. They could count on more opportunity. That was the difference. It’s not that women do not get equal opportunities. It’s just that we do not get equal opportunity to fuck up. You had to make good (or great) every time.

All I have ever been is a woman. And so really I cannot ever fairly compare and contrast. To know what it must be to be a male director and how hard or easy it is to navigate through to make a career. I truly cannot say. However, I do know that it in the 80 odd years since the Academy has been handing out awards, only 4 times a woman has been nominated for best director and won once. They say film is a director’s medium. They say a film is a director’s vision. They say the opportunity is equal. I want to believe it.

I believed it tonight. It finally happened. Tonight I was proud to be a film director. Everything seemed just a little more possible.

xoxo,
Aparna