2. Discovering your unique voice

We go to the movies to have a collective experience, to have our minds and hearts opened to new ways of thinking and feeling. To discover what we share in common with other human beings, no matter how different they seem to us. For Mira, the best films are those that balance opposites: revealing tenderness in brutality, the unexpected in the familiar, and the extraordinary in the ordinary. She has always put her own culture, language, and identity at the forefront of her craft.

Mira developed her unique voice without formal training in fiction filmmaking. Instead, she studied observational documentary called cinéma vérité, or ‘cinema of truth’ at Harvard and MIT. This style involves spending several months (or more) immersed in a community, building trust, and following characters as their lives unfold. The filmmaker does not manipulate the events captured on camera, and instead ‘finds’ the story later in the editing room where a narrative is crafted.

Frustrated by the limited audience for documentary in the 1980’s, and wanting more control over gesture, light and storytelling, this propelled Mira towards fiction. Her first feature film was Salaam Bombay! (1988), about the resilience of children in the streets of Bombay. Mira’s vérité roots show through clearly in this film, which was shot on location with natural sound, and with dialogue written in the slang of Bombay. It was a risky first film, and not like anything audiences in either India or America had yet seen.

The risk paid off. Following Salaam Bombay!’s success, Mira began to get courted by Hollywood studios. But she remained fiercely independent, and held to a strict criterion for choosing her next project: “Can anyone else make this film? Or is this a film only I can make?” For Mira, being a South Asian female is central to her identity, enabling her to enter spaces that a white male filmmaker could never access. She trusts her own original voice, which emerges from her own sense of language, people, and culture.

Her determination to stay rooted led Mira to make a controversial pitch for her second film. Mississippi Masala would bring a love story between a brown and a black character to the big screen, something that Hollywood had never attempted before. Mira collaborated with her Harvard classmate Sooni Taraporevala, who wrote the script specifically for Denzel Washington as the romantic lead. Mira hoped that Denzel’s involvement would guarantee a green light for the project, yet several studios were deeply hesitant about the lack of a white protagonist. Mira forged on, and the film’s ‘never before’ aspect turned out to be precisely why Mississippi Masala resonated with audiences and remains impactful to this day.

The lesson from Mira’s success is to trust yourself and the story you want to tell. To have the courage to be distinct. Don’t think that you have to make a film that studio executives want you to make, or that you can’t make a film because it’s never been done before. Make your film precisely because audiences have never before seen this story told on screen. Find your original voice, trust it, and your film will find an audience.

 

DID YOU KNOW?

Mira describes how her first film, Salaam Bombay!, was “a novelty both in India as well as outside India.” This feeling of belonging to neither tradition, and yet reaching audiences everywhere, led Mira to joke about naming her company DKK Productions, in reference to a popular Urdu saying: “Dhobi ka kutta Na ghar ka Na ghat ka.” (A washerman’s dog belongs no place, neither at home nor on the street, yet at home everywhere.) Instead, Mira named her company Mirabai Productions. The term ‘bai’ is used in India to respectfully address a woman.

LEARN MORE

Beginning in the 1960s, new hand-held camera technology enabled filmmakers to follow real-life events in a way that was more intimate and less obtrusive than had been previously possible. What emerged was the method of filmmaking in which Mira was trained, known as cinéma vérité. Filmed on location with non-actors, vérité docs focus on everyday situations, are shot with continuous action and unscripted action and dialogue, and often delve into social and political issues.

The style originated in Europe, but evolved into ‘direct cinema’ when it was imported to the US and Canada. Direct cinema, to an even greater degree than cinéma vérité, emphasizes non-intervention, striving for an observational ‘fly on the wall’ approach by the filmmakers. Today, the terms cinéma vérité and direct cinema are often used interchangeably to describe a style that feels real and that follows impromptu rather than scripted action.

Watch one or more of the following classic films that emerged from these two intertwined traditions. When Mira was to choose the path of filmmaking, these films inspired her.

Chronicle of a Summer (1961) is an experiment by French filmmakers Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, who use their camera and their presence to provoke action: in this case, by stopping people on the streets of Paris and asking, “Are you happy?”

Titicut Follies (1967) is Frederick Wiseman’s haunting portrayal of the Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Massachusetts. The film documents the disturbing treatment of inmates by those who were supposed to care for them.

Don’t Look Back (1967) follows singer-songwriter Bob Dylan on tour as he makes a bold shift from folk to rock. D.A. Pennebaker’s film is now a pop culture classic, owing largely to its opening, when Dylan performs “Subterranean Homesick Blues.”

La Jetée (1962), directed by Chris Marker, blends science fiction with documentary techniques. The short film, part of the French Left Bank/New Wave movement, is a montage of still photographs that reflect the protagonist’s memories as he travels through time. If you are eager to learn more about the history of documentary filmmaking, read Erik Barnouw’s classic book Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film (Oxford University Press, 1993).

ASSIGNMENT

To make distinctive films, you would like to possess a distinctive voice. Take several minutes to journal about what causes you to unique. Answer the following questions:

Think about the people you recognize , your family and friends. How do they speak, think, or act? With whom does one most strongly identify? Who is important to you, and the way have they made you who you're today?

Think about the places you've got lived or visited. Where did you get older, and the way did it shape you? Where have you ever chosen to measure as an adult, and why? What makes an area desire home, and what places does one long to explore?

Think about the memories from your past that are especially vivid and private. Write on what you learned from those experiences, and how they impacted you. How do they affect your current viewpoint on life?

Think about how you experience the planet around you. Are you drawn to particular aspects of your environment, like sounds, colors, or tactile elements? How might these proclivities influence your storytelling style?

Think about your values and belief system. What is meaningful to you? What does one feel is that the purpose of existence? What does matter for you most? Deep commitment to a cultural philosophy or pioneering your own path?

How might your worldview influence the stories you would like to tell?

All of those dimension—people, places, memories, perceptions, and beliefs—are important to think about when brooding about what makes your voice distinctive. Have a transparent sense of who you're as an individual, as a storyteller, and as a filmmaker, and know what you bring to the table that no-one else can. Make your distinctiveness your calling card.