Edarabia had the opportunity to speak with Reshel Shah Kapoor, SAE Institute Lecturer and Independent Film Director, who recently won the Broadcast Pro ME Award 2018 for her documentary feature film God Children.
Reshel shared with us her thoughts about the filmmaking industry, how to engage young adults and get them to love what they do, and why it is so important to develop creative and soft skills in a digitally-driven world. Read on for our interview.
God Children is a 56-minute-long documentary film, I started researching the topic in May 2017 and by October of the same year, we started the development of the project. In December 2017, we were in India filming for 17 days in total. The film was funded by Aum Media who believed in the project as well as in me, to bring this topic to light. In August 2018 the film was ready. It has now been picked up by Journeyman Films in the UK for distribution.
People always ask me why I picked this topic. It was because I just knew there was a story waiting to be told. It did not make sense to me that some children in India were seen as an incarnation of a Hindu God with no choice in the matter. Most importantly I wanted to know if these children wanted to be seen as saviours or just wanted to have a normal childhood. I just felt like I needed to know. Historically, people have always strived to have power, so I wondered how these children felt having such power over their devotees and more importantly, whether they wanted this power or not.
Personally, I grew up having a wonderful childhood that I still remember. It wasn’t something outstandingly different but just being allowed to enjoy childhood has helped me become the person I am today. Knowing these kids didn’t have the same filled my mind with questions I needed answers too. I noticed there was only so much I could find out from the Internet and I really wanted these questions answered. Werner Herzog, whom I consider my godfather in the field of documentary filmmaking, once said in a master class that an idea/topic for a documentary cannot be forced into you. It is like the clouds open and lightning strikes, and you know you are the only one who is meant to tell this story, and that’s exactly what happened to me! The film’s short synopsis is below.
Synopsis
In rural villages of India, children born with a specific birth defect may be defied overnight by people believing the child is an incarnation of a Hindu God and a beacon of hope to the people around them. In the film, one boy never wished to be seen as a Hindu God, while the other only knows how to live as a symbol of hope to his village. Both were never given the choice.
Making films was always my passion, but now it is my only profession! If I am not making a film, I am teaching the process of making one! When I was a child, every Friday night was movie night at my house. Every single time, the next day around 6 am, I would wake up and watch the film all over again. From a very young age, I was amazed how I was in someone else’s world and story. Back then I thought the films I was watching was real life. When I was eight, I remember watching the end of Sholay (a classic Bollywood film) when my Mum caught me crying! I was tearing up because of the end of the film is tragic, and it was then that my mother explained to me how these films are stories being told. I vividly recall her rewinding the film and showing me that the same scenes all over again. I realized that this wasn’t real and that just blew my mind. This was the moment when I was amazed by the magic in front of me!
When I was in high school, I took a course in Media Studies and my teacher at the time asked me what film I would make if I had the chance. I was quite the gamer back then, and my answer was that I would make Tomb Raider into a film and have Angelina Jolie play Lara Croft! A few months later my teacher showed me the trailer for the new Tomb Raider film soon to be released with Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft! Once again I was amazed, and at that point my teacher said to me “Maybe you are meant to work in films!” Those words resonated so much that I didn’t look back. All my studies from there onwards were media and film-based, I did summer courses to make short films and then did my Bachelor’s degree in Film Production. I just knew that being a part of the film industry was my goal and hence something that started as a passion ended up being my profession!
I have been working here for over seven years, and I love being able to teach and guide a younger generation of filmmakers. Another reason why I am still with them is because of the kind of support I get from them as a film director. I adore how my management team and my colleagues are always supporting me in the making of my films: they let me go on my film shoots, I balance my schedule to make enough time for my research and attend film festivals. In other words, they always push me to keep going.
Even my students know about all my films, the filmmaking process and pretty much are part of the whole journey when I make a film! My film department team and I are always trying to advise our students to publish their film work or enter their films into film festivals and awards-based ceremonies. We don’t want to be their lecturers only, but also be role models to them. Therefore, it’s always good to practice what we teach and making films and entering them into film festivals and award ceremonies is a part of that.
It’s tough! But that only makes me want to go out there even more to show the industry that I exist! But with patience and hard work it all works out. When I moved here nine years ago, I was still growing in the film industry, and after a lot of hard work and practice I am now being noticed for my work as a film-maker, which makes all the sweat and blood worth it!
If a student is learning or practising filmmaking, they already have the passion which is great. The next step is putting the passion into real-life work, experience and projects. No matter if it’s for a class project or not, it’s always good to be coming up with stories, script and make them and learn from them. Students tend to think they just want to become that film director and produce their dream work, but it takes time, and it takes plenty of practice. The best thing to do consistently practice the art, and that’s how people will start noticing you.
I think we are already building the new generation of creative leaders and I see them every day at school. Having more competitions and activities for the younger generation to take part in would be great. When I was at university, the town I was studying in had many grants, funding competitions and networking opportunities. If we can make more of those available here, it will allow our youth to blossom even more.
For strength! When I say stay strong, I don’t mean physically, I mean mentally. A lot of people may not believe in your ideas or may think that filmmaking as a career is not really professional. But that’s not the case at all, and the digital market we are seeing clearly proves it. Having a positive attitude is a must. Being a creative professional means working with tight deadlines, tough projects and all sorts of personalities and hence having a positive attitude and the belief that every problem has a solution is as critical as the ability to stay calm. Last but not least, be grounded – the creative profession is not a 9-to-5 office job, so if a person understands that it involves crazy hours, a lot of dedication and maturity then they are on the right track.f
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