By Adam Ross
My Melbourne’s intertwined anthology format is exciting, but what is even more intriguing is what is happening behind the scenes. Four heavyweight Indian directors have flown into Melbourne to mentor the emerging filmmakers of each segment.
This new VicScreen initiative started with a callout for authentic migrant stories set in Melbourne. That callout received a whopping 3,000 expressions of interest from filmmakers all over the world. A painstaking process was then undertaken to determine which stories would be told. Out of those storytellers, five writers and four directors were chosen.
The writing team is made up of Gregory Francis, William Duan, Samira Cox, Monique Nair, and Nazifa Amiri.
The directing team is made up of William Duan, Samira Cox, Puneet Gulati, and Tammy Yang.
These emerging talents will be mentored by established Indian directors Onir (My Brother… Nikhil), Kabir Khan (‘83), Rima Das (Village Rockstars), and Imtiaz Ali (Love Aaj Kai).
Together, this team of mentors and mentees will work on four projects that will ultimately become My Melbourne.
The four projects are:
Kanjeevaram
MENTOR DIRECTOR: ONIR
MENTEE DIRECTOR: WILLIAM DUAN
CONCEPT BY: GREGORY FRANCIS
SCREENPLAY BY: GREGORY FRANCIS AND WILLIAM DUAN
Synopsis: A story of grief and forgiveness, Kanjeevaram follows the reunion of a queer Indian man, Raman, and his father, Prakash, who arrives in Melbourne from India to complete the Asthi Visarjan ash spreading ceremony after the passing of his late wife Padma, Raman’s mother.
Into The Spotlight
MENTOR DIRECTOR: RIMA DAS
MENTEE DIRECTOR: SAMIRA COX
CONCEPT AND SCREENPLAY BY: SAMIRA COX
Synopsis: As a young girl, Emma was an aspiring dancer, despite having both hearing and vision difficulties, until bullying made her give up her dream. Will a confrontation with one of her bullies lead to the rekindling of her dreams?
Setara
MENTOR DIRECTOR: KABIR KHAN
MENTEE DIRECTOR: PUNEET GULATI
CONCEPT AND SCREENPLAY BY: MONIQUE NAIR AND NAZIFA AMIRI
Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Setara joins a local cricket team as she attempts to rebuild her life in Melbourne after fleeing the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan with her mother and older sister.
Art of Throwing Pebbles
MENTOR DIRECTOR: IMTIAZ ALI
CONCEPT BY: MITU BHOWMICK LANGE
MENTEE DIRECTOR: TAMMY YANG
SCREENPLAY AND MENTEE DIRECTOR: SHIVANGI BHOWMICK
Synopsis: Worlds collide when a newly married girl from a small town meets a homeless poet on the streets of St Kilda.
Producer Mitu Bhowmick Lange [recent recipient of an Order of Australia, founder of the Indian Film Festival, and head of Mindblowing Films which released anthology films Here Out West] said of the production: “Our goal for My Melbourne is not only to create an entertaining feature film that is authentic, contemporary, honest, and relevant but also to discover and nurture the next generation of underrepresented diverse filmmakers and their unique stories. Working with some of the most respected filmmakers in the world, our local emerging creatives will learn from the best without compromising on their cultural and authentic narrative styles.
“Since we are not restricted to one story, we have the opportunity to engage and showcase to a significantly wider and broader audience of multicultural communities, telling authentic migrant stories with the support of four of the world’s finest filmmakers.
“We hope to make this a regular initiative, where we create a feature film of diverse stories to be premiered at the Indian Film Festival every second year. This would also be a beautiful postcard about Australia, to the broader multicultural communities around the world, particularly to Indian and subcontinent students, filmmakers, and business people showcasing Melbourne as a welcoming destination with a vibrant multicultural screen culture.”
The four projects will premiere – under the title of My Melbourne – at the Melbourne Indian Film Festival in August 2023 with the filmmakers in attendance.
