5 Questions #11: Nisha Pahuja

The Director of the Oscar Shortlisted Doc "To Kill A Tiger" has the answers...

Have you ever sat down to watch a film and just been so stunned to what is unfolding that your eyes well up because you are feeling the world change as a result of the work you are witnessing? I did just recently,, and we are all fortunate the director of that remarkable film, To Kill A Tiger, Nisha Pahuja, answered a few questions for us. It is so easy to see films as a product or a transaction, but at their core, they are all about relationships, and many faceted ones at that — with the audience, the crew, the culture, and the industry. For me, that all came profoundly into focus with this film. The conversation below sharpens it further.

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It is long been encouraged to “write what you know” but with cinema since all forms of it is expensive, we are often encouraged to “give audiences what they want”… how do you balance these two?

I became a Documentary filmmaker over 25 years ago driven by the need to tell engaging stories geared for social change. I’ve never wavered from that. Undoubtedly the way I work has come at a cost but it’s a choice that I have made freely and willingly.  I really, really love what I do and I love the process of making films in a way that makes sense to me. Each film gives you only one opportunity to get it right—and of course we make films to communicate to audiences, but I have always felt instinctively that my job, first and foremost is to serve the story.  If that is at the centre of everything, the audience will naturally come. The process of this particular film taught me to reach for a certain kind of quiet purity. It’s very hard to explain; suffice it to say all stories tell you what they need to be. And all stories will find their audience.

For nonfiction work, we need great characters AND great subjects. So much is about establishing trust and confidence with the characters. What advice do you have in terms of how to do that to be granted access, and then to maintain that trust through what is often a long process?

Mrinal Desai the DP of this film made an excellent comment in a Q and A. He said that when he’s filming a documentary, what he’s essentially shooting is the relationship between the Director and the films’ Participants. I thought that was a brilliant observation. I would add however, that what is being captured is the relationship between the Participants and the entire crew and if you work with a team that shares a similar philosophical bent that’s really half the battle. I’ve been working with the same team-Mrinal Desai DP and Anita Kushwaha, sound recordist, for many years and we’ve grown creatively together. Both of them are also Indian and understand the cultural nuances in ways that I can’t in spite of the years I have spent in India. This is critical to ensure authenticity—so, as much as possible, work with and value your local crew.

Normally when I begin a film, I spend a lot of time with the subjects off camera and also on camera to make them comfortable with being filmed. With To Kill a Tiger, the process was inverted. The first time I met Ranjit, it was in the context of filming with him and the NGO worker who had come to offer his support . At that time, the focus of the film was the work of the organization. So the intimacy with the family came much, much later and developed over the course of filming.

One lesson that was imparted to me years ago by Doc filmmaker John Walker was to share of yourself with your Participants as much as you expect from them.  A reminder that documentary shouldn’t be an extractive process but one that is ultimately about friendship and human bonds. When friendship is the foundation, filming over long periods of time becomes much simpler.  Undoubtedly folks will get frustrated—(who wouldn’t being followed around by a crew for years?)  but what I’ve found is that the people I film with, tend to have as much of a vested interest in the work as I do and start to understand how collaborative the process is.

If we want to change the world, we can’t turn away from challenging subjects or approaches, but simultaneously it often means we will be making it hard to get placements or acquisition from leading platforms, not to mention the media attention that is needed to make an impact. How do you balance that?

It’s definitely getting harder and harder to make socio-political films about challenging and critical subjects—add subtitles to that mix and your issues are compounded multifold! With this film I realized very early on the need to have high profile champions. Without them, this powerful David and Goliath story was just going to die and I couldn’t let that happen because I knew that the real-life tangible change this story could make for survivors was irrefutable. So, through some friends, I enlisted the support of Mindy Kaling, Dev Patel, Canadian poet Rupi Kaur and the global organization Equality Now that uses the law to fight for gender justice around the world. Each of these partners boarded the film immediately, understanding its potential for impact.

Sometimes you just need champions to invite others into the tent. That’s what I did. I also gathered around me a group of tireless women determined to get this film out into the world. We leave no stone unturned and all our funding comes from incredibly generous donors who have supported us to get as far as we have. Should it be this hard? I honestly wish it weren’t- but each film has its own story. This is the story of ours.

What are some practical things we might be able to do to improve things in the industry?

Respect the intelligence of audiences and support the creation and dissemination of work that doesn’t  follow a formula.  Take smart chances and embrace subtitles and stories from around the world. They just need to be marketed well. Diaspora audiences in the US ache to be seen- because to be reflected in the society you live in is a fundamental part of being human. It also makes smart business sense.  

I also encourage all of us in the industry to think about the world we’re creating with the stories we tell. These stories are a record of us, of our civilization and our time on this planet. How do we want to be remembered? I think of that a lot as I get older and re-read the poets I loved whose words are becoming more meaningful and less abstract with time.

In dealing with real life subjects, beyond just putting the camera on them, how do you ensure  you are giving them the dignity, humanity, compassion that all of us are deserving of? 

Spend a great deal of time in any country outside your own and it will change how you look at the world and as a filmmaker, how you make films. Most of my work is about India and as someone who has spent many years making films there I’ve learned the importance of being nonjudgemental and to respect people, even if I disagree with their beliefs. I am a guest after all and just as they have been shaped by their realities, I have been shaped by mine. We are all products of time and place and things that are far beyond our control. So I really have no right to judge. I believe that’s why people open up to us in the field as they do. With this particular film I continually checked in with the family given how incredibly sensitive the material was, the ethics of filming with a survivor and the dynamics around power and consent.  Their consent and involvement continues to this day and both Ranjit and his daughter Kiran have attended screenings of the film. The power of those Q and A’s and what it meant to them to experience an audience responding to their story is unforgettable.

Nisha Pahuja is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker based in Toronto. Her latest film, TO KILL A TIGER, had its world premiere at TIFF where it won the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film. Since then, it’s won 21 awards including Best Documentary Feature, Palm Springs International Film Festival and three Canadian Screen awards. The film grew out of a long career of addressing various human rights issues, notably violence against women in India. In 2015, she won the Amnesty International media award for Canadian journalism after making a short film about the Delhi bus gang rape for Global News. Pahuja’s other past credits include the multi-award-winning THE WORLD BEFORE HER (2012 Best Documentary Feature, Jury Award Winner, Tribeca Film Festival; Best Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs; TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten; Best Documentary nominee, Canadian Screen Awards, the series Diamond Road (2008 Gemini Award for Best Documentary Series) and Bollywood Bound (2002 Gemini Award nominee).