All about the money: A discussion on documentary filmmaking

The theme was lsquoThe Art of Capturing Reality in Documentaryrsquo but the discussion took on a life of its own as can happen in the creative sphere and ended up debating the economics of documentary filmmaking The panel discussion was organised last week in the city by Women in Film amp Television India along with the US Consulate GeneralLR Surabhi Sharma Shivendra Singh Dungarpur Anjali Monteiro Patrick Shen and Debra Zimmerman at the panel discussion held at St Andrewrsquos College in Bandra last week PicAtul KambleOn the panel were Debra Zimmerman Executive Director of nonprofit group Women Make Movies filmmaker Patrick Shen both from the US and Indian filmmakers Surabhi Sharma and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur The discussion was moderated by Anjali Monteiro Dean School of Media and Cultural Studies at the Tata Institute of Social SciencesA still from Celluloid Man made by Shivendra Singh DungarpurInvisibility of womenZimmerman said that Women make Movies WMM was set up to ldquoput cameras into the hands of women who otherwise do not have the opportunity to make filmsrdquo and after some years it had taken to distribution The main problem WMM faced was funding she said and distribution addressed that It now distributes mainly documentary films and hopes to address the invisibility of women both behind the camera and on screenA still from Surabhi Sharmarsquos film Bidesia in BambaiExplaining what she meant Zimmerman that there are many organisations interested in the gender of the person making the film but there is a dearth in the US of images of women not just in documentary but in Hollywood too Eighteen per cent of camera time is all that is actually spent by women on screen she said adding that unfortunately documentaries screened on public television and cinemas in the US also largely represented men and menrsquos problems which are considered to be the universal problems with womenrsquos problems seen as a minority issue or lsquospecial interestrsquoUltimately Zimmerman remarked regardless of the medium even considering the advantages of digital what it always comes down to is marketing Itrsquos the cost of getting the film to people so that they know about it and that is a challenge that continues till today she said For example she said though iTunes is widespread the company Apple has controlled the market in such a way that they donrsquot allow smaller companies to have their own platformDocumentary as artPatrick Shen said that documentary is an art form and ultimately art is a reflection of the creator He said his documentaries are truthful to the extent that his perception of the world and his version of the truth is true ldquoUltimately our version is a metaphor for what is happening in the worldrdquo he saidHe said one of the questions he had been tackling was how to make the documentary more immersive and experiential for the viewer People donrsquot want to pay money to go and see something depressing They want to be moved to feel compelled he said quoting Michael Moore who recommends that filmmakers should not make documentaries but should make moviesShivendra Singh Dungarpur remarked that when he was making Celluloid Man his documentary about legendary film archivist PK Nair the medium became important in an odd way Nair had been approached by many to make a film ldquobut he agreed to mine because we were shooting on 35mm filmrdquoHe said Celluloid Man came about after a Martin Scorsese interview led him to visit Bologna in Italy where great films are restored When he saw the films he remembered from his youth he said he realised how much of his student life had slipped away in the bustle of the commercial work he was doingHence he said he went to visit P K Nair in Pune and the filmrsquos journey began ldquoWhen I was shooting it I never thought I was shooting reality I was always in the magical moment of those personal memories And if this is documentary then so be itrdquo He said making the film was expensive but because his work as a commercial filmmaker was doing well he was able to meet the costsPerception of genderSurabhi Sharma said that she came from an unusual batch in the FTII as there were nine women and two men in the 11strong class and the men termed it the death of filmmaking The difficulties she faced as a filmmaker she said included the perception that as a woman filmmaker she should make films primarily about women Funding just does not come for films made by women about men she said and this placed further constraints in an already difficult areaIt is central as a filmmaker not to be defined by your identity she said For example she said she made a film in 2007 about music by Indians in Jamaica and Trinidad where there is a large Indian diaspora and she pitched the project to the BBC but she was asked why anyone in the UK would be interested in a film about Indians in Trinidad ldquoHence you are bound by a vision that is expected of you As a filmmaker in these past 10 years it has meant that I donrsquot get funds very easilyrdquoBoxed inModerator Anjali Monteiro remarked that one of the common themes is that filmmakers are put into boxes which make them more easily marketable There is a notion of the target audience or what people want which shapes the flow of funding and unfortunately also begins to shape the kind of documentaries that are made In the Indian context she said a lot of Indian documentary filmmakers have struggled both for funding their films and also for showing and distributing themZimmerman further said that when her organisation had studied how US foundations were giving grants they found that men making films about men got the most money and women making films about women got the least But interestingly enough she said women making films about men got more money than men making films about women did The subject has a lot to do with how much money a film gets she saidSharma remarked that in a world of hypermedia from 24x7 news channels to the ultimate intrusion of programmes like Bigg Boss everything seems excessive and every detail of life is scrutinised and as a documentary filmmaker she wants to retreat to have the choice of not shooting excessively not following a character through and shooting everything She said sometimes she wishes 35mm film was still in use so that people would shoot less ldquoWhy one puts the camera on and why one puts it off itself has become a deeply political act nowrdquo she saidDearth of avenuesDungarpur brought up the question of documentary film screenings and said that in the era of privatisation documentary filmmakers had very few avenues in which to show their films Funding restrictions apart people also donrsquot want to pay to see documentary films he saidThere is a culture of watching documentaries in an informal setting though there is not yet a way to monetise this said Sharma She remarked that she receives requests for showing her films from wideranging audiences in different parts of India and so the number of people watching films and discussing them whether in educational institutions or film societies or other organisations is sizeable ldquoOf course there is no money coming in from thatrdquo she saidShen said it is a lot of work convincing people of the value of the film and that they should pay at least the screening cost There is this unspoken consensus that you should not have to pay to watch a documentary ldquoTheyrsquove made it for our benefit we should not have to pay for itrdquo Sharma said that even just setting up a film screening costs money but very often filmmakers were unable to recoup costs as low as even Rs 3000