New York based documentary filmmaker Megan Mylan, who has
directed projects such as ‘Smile Pinki,’ ‘Lost Boys of Sudan’ and ‘My Little
Boys,’ is passionate about her films. In Goa for the 45th International Film
Festival of India, Megan is on the lookout for more stories with the aim of
getting issues out in the open. Her film, ‘Smile Pinki’, won the Academy Award for
Best Documentary in 2008, the same year ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ stole the show.
However, the glamour was not what she was searching for.
‘Smile Pinki’ is a 39-minute documentary about Pinki Sonkar,
a five-year-old girl living with a severe cleft lip in one of the poorest areas
of India. “At the Oscars, where it is all about the actors and the dresses, people
asked Pinki about who she was excited to see, Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt. I
had to reply for her, saying that she didn’t even know Aamir Khan, let alone
the Hollywood stars. Pinki had never left her village before this.”
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Commenting about her Oscar win, she says, “The Academy
Awards give a film great visibility; increasing the number of people who will
watch the film. Also, receiving recognition from your peers is quite exciting. Because
of the Award, we were able to screen the film in eight different cities in
India through PVR Cinema. It is easier to get people to answer your calls after
they know you have won an Oscar,” says Megan.
Megan returned to India to shoot another film through the Sundance
Institute, an independent filmmaking institute. They wanted to encourage
filmmakers to tell stories of overcoming poverty and hunger, early marriages
and education. “I read a newspaper article about this gardening programme in
West Bengal and before I had even finished reading the article, I knew I wanted
to take that up as my story,” says Megan about her ten-minute film, ‘After My
Garden Grows’, which was shot in West Bengal.
Living in the US, how does one connect to the plight of an Indian
child? She replies, “Everyone lives a different life; you try to portray it on
the basis of your understanding of it. I do my homework with full honesty in
the subject. For ‘After My Garden Grows’, I had a team of just three people. I
used to work with people who are known in the area and they would signal me
when to stop but that rarely happened. I have been in the field for 20 years
and I know where the conversation is heading and when the people in the
documentary are performing,” explains Megan.
Since Megan has worked on films based on issues outside the
US, she wants her films to be seen globally. “I am keener to promote the films
in the country where they were shot, like India and Brazil, as the issues get
more attention locally. But I would even like people in the US to watch the
films. It is, after all, just ten minutes long,” says Megan.
