Archana Phadke: Through Her Lens

INTERVIEW

Archana

PHADKE: THROUGH HER LENS

Interview By Armin S.

AN ALUMNA OF BERLINALE TALENT CAMPUS,

ARCHANA RECENTLY RELEASED HER UNIQUE FEATURE DOCUMENTARY - ‘ABOUT LOVE’ WHICH IS CURRENTLY STREAMING ON MUBI. THE FILM IS

A PERSONAL CAPTURING OF PHADKE’S OWN

FAMILY IN AN OBSERVATIONAL PORTRAIT STYLE - CAPTURING THE STORIES OF THE THREE GENERATIONS OF HER FAMILY THAT LIVE

TOGETHER IN MUMBAI. THE DOCUMENTARY, WHICH MARKS HER DEBUT AS A FEATURE

DIRECTOR, PREMIERED AT THE SHEFFIELD DOC FEST, WHICH IS AN OSCAR QUALIFYING FESTIVAL. THE FILM WON THE NEW TALENT AWARD AT THE FESTIVAL AND ALSO WON THE BEST FILM ASIAN PERSPECTIVE AWARD AT DMZ DOCS FESTIVAL.

SHE HAS PREVIOUSLY WON THE NATIONAL AWARD FOR ‘PLACEBO’, A DOCUMENTARY SHE PRODUCED. AND I TAKE A BREATH – BUT WHAT IS IT REALLY LIKE BEHIND ALL THE ACCOLADES? IT’S PERSISTENCE, A LITTLE BIT OF CRAZY, AND A

WHOLE LOT OF CONVICTION TO SURVIVE AND POTENTIALLY THRIVE IN THE INDEPENDENT FILM

WORLD. I GET CHATTING WITH HER ABOUT A TERRITORY THAT IS SEEMINGLY FAMILIAR TO ME.

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INTERVIEW

ARCHANA, YOU DIDN’T ALWAYS WANT TO BE A FILMMAKER. WHEN DID THAT CHANGE FOR YOU – FROM BIOTECHNOLOGY TO FILMMAKING?

This actually happened quite a while back – about fourteen years ago. I graduated from BioTechnology but I had grown up watching films. I used to love watching films in theatres. I never thought I’d be a filmmaker. When I was studying BioTechnology, I did this internship in a pharmaceutical company which made me figure out that I don’t want to do that. My mom suggested I join a film school, for a year, and it was a short program. She told me to try it out. I went in and for the first time, I was exposed to world cinema. I was blown away by the magic of cinema. I remember the exact moment I fell in love with cinema – and that was when I was shown Amelie. That’s when I realized it was not a “break” year for me. I realized that if I can come close to making this kind of a genius film, I would be really happy with the purpose of my life – it would be fulfilled. Thankfully, my family was very supportive of my decision. I’m not sure if my brother wanted to make the same decision, if he would have been supported in that fashion. I think they supported me somehow, because, they weren’t even perhaps sure what filmmaking was. I then assisted on a few films and then made my documentary, which took four years to make, called Placebo. It won a National Award and that’s when my parents started taking me seriously as a filmmaker. Until then, it was just like a hobby. They thought I was passing time, basically.

WHAT IS THAT WAITING PERIOD LIKE FOR THE WORLD TO SEE THE PROJECT THAT HAS BEEN YOUR BABY, YOUR INDEPENDENT PROJECT, AS A CREATIVE IN INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER?

For my first film, I think this is the case for every filmmaker. No matter how long it takes, you want to perfect it and finish it. You’re taking up the roles of ten people. You are completely exhausted and not sleeping. That causes a major, major burnout. With Placebo, I edited the film as well. I had 1100 hours of footage. It took me two and a half years to edit that film. I forgot who I was – as an independent filmmaker, your film makes you completely forget your identity outside of being a filmmaker. You are the mother, the father, the cousin, of the film. Weirdly, I stepped into a new film right after that, I don’t know why. That was the same experience again. I then took a two year break I guess. These last two years, through what’s happened around the world, we all paused and the pause is maybe something I needed – it helped me understand who I am, what I needed, and what I wanted to do because what I was doing was not sustainable. It’s actually traumatic. In Hollywood, they started putting in a therapist into the budget and I think I’m going to start doing that for sure for my next film – because even when after you make a film, you wait for a festival to select it. And then you are wondering that you have made a film and nobody is going to watch it.

I was dying inside for the four months before the film was selected for a festival. I mean, you learn that a film will find its place but that learning comes with time. � Tell me about how you keep going with the conviction that you have, when you know that the reality is that independent filmmaking is not only expensive, but really gut-wrenching and consuming. It’s madness. It’s total madness. It’s the only way. You have to be unrealistic, crazy, a dreamer, and completely delusional – that’s the only way you can make an independent film happen.

TELL ME ABOUT THAT DELUSION, THAT OBSESSION FOR ABOUT LOVE. IT’S AN INTERESTING CONCEPT – COVERING THREE GENERATIONS – THE GERM OF THE IDEA AND HOW IT CAME TO FRUITION.

Actually, at the time, I was travelling with my film, Placebo, and it was playing at Hot Docs in Toronto. I saw another film there – My Love Don’t Cross That River. It is a Korean documentary about a 99 year old man and a 90 year old woman and it is such a cute Hallmark-kind of documentary. When I saw the film, I thought of my own grandparents. I thought that that kind of love doesn’t exist in my family. I thought of my own grandparents. I was flying to New York next and I picked up a camera from a studio – which could be an anti-love story. It was a project that kind of started as an inquiry. The more I shot, the stronger my feeling got that, yes, I have something – there’s gold I’m sitting on – that keeps you going for four years and I’m going to keep going.

WHAT WAS THE RECEPTION OR REACTION LIKE OF YOUR FAMILY, THEN?

The first one year, I don’t think they took me seriously again, like my first film. But they have always seen me with the camera around. They knew I was shooting something but they did not imagine that it would become a ninety-minute film. I was shooting, lighting, sound, myself. They were like, something is up…but until the film finished, they did not know. Thankfully, my family gave me their blessing to put the film out there. When your characters are sharing their personal spaces with you, the least you can do is be dignified enough to get their permission to kind of expose them. I was really scared that it could go the other way, but it really worked out for me.

MOVING FORWARD, WHERE DOES THE MADNESS TAKE YOU NEXT?

The pandemic has been a strange time. My brother and his wife just had a baby about a year ago…but we did not step out during her pregnancy and we were just in the house. My place of escape was my dreams. The next one is going to be about a botanist and his plant and it keeps changing – and he cannot understand what species it is. I’m just developing it. It is a short… but I’m also developing a feature script in rural India so let’s see where that takes me.

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