Among the many Indian filmmakers that were championed at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival this year, Ashok Vish greatly intrigued us with the choice of his story. Titled Nightbirds, the film is made in collaboration with a Filipino filmmaker: Ashok’s film explores the world of cockfighters and the myth around them based on a famous Filipino folklore. A promising new voice from the indie bunch, Ashok made it to Cannes thanks to the Directors’ Factory project that provides a platform for new emerging filmmakers. Since 2013, under the umbrella of Quinzaine des Cinéastes, each year with the support of a new partner country, The Factory mentors 8 budding filmmakers with ambitious first or second feature projects to co-write and co-direct, in pairs, a total of 4 short films to be screened at the Director’s Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival.
This year’s country in focus was the Philippines so four filmmakers from the Philippines were selected and four international filmmakers. Ashok was one of the four who got picked based on his pitch for his feature film and previous works.
Automagic, his short film is a prelude to his under-production debut feature length fiction film, To Kill the One You Love. Nightbirds was screened at Cannes last month and apart from all these riveting narratives, he also has an autobiographical docu-fiction film in post-production:
THE FIRST PROJECTS
My feature length fiction film, titled, To Kill The One You Love, is based on the myth of Ayyappan, a Hindu deity born to two male gods albeit one of them in a female avatar. Dev, a middle-aged rickshaw driver declares his love for Madhu, an androgynous young artist, during their first ever sexual encounter. While Madhu moves on, Dev’s obsession grows and he begins to envision Madhu as female, leading to a series of emotionally charged confrontations.
My other short film, Automagic, is a lead up to my feature film and follows the same character, Madhu. On his return home, Madhu attempts to seduce Ratnakar, his rickshaw driver, who is practicing celibacy in preparation for a religious pilgrimage.
NIGHTBIRDS
During the initial stages of the program (The Factory), we were told the location of our shoot and provided with other guidelines of: in terms of production. After discovering that Dapitan, a small town in the Mindanao island of the Philippines, was going to be our location of filming, we began doing some research about the town and the people who live there.
After several meetings and workshopping potential ideas/stories, we decided to portray a story around a cockfighter and contextualize a myth within this world. Cockfighting, to my surprise, is a legal activity and culturally rooted across the Philippines.
COLLABORATING PROCESS
Being paired up with another filmmaker you have never met before and tasked to co-write and co-direct a film is an extremely challenging task. My partner in crime was a young Filipino filmmaker, Estela Maria Paiso. One of our first conversations was to look at the program as more of an exercise – an intense filmmaking bootcamp-like exercise – with an opportunity to hone in our filmmaking skills across the board. I also realized early on that I would not have complete creative control since this is about co-creating with someone else, therefore compromise became our mantra.
Once we had these conversations, both Estela and I realized we had several shared interests. And quite early on we decided we wanted to contextualize some kind of mythology within our film.
STORYTELLING AS AN EMOTION
The way a story is told – a clear point of view, the pacing, the tone – can greatly influence our emotional engagement. A passionate, intimate, or urgent narrative can draw us in and make the emotions of the story more palpable. Sometimes, a story resonates because it mirrors our own experiences, fears, dreams, or challenges. When we see parts of ourselves or our lives reflected in a story, the emotional impact can be profound and personal.
In essence, storytelling is a powerful tool because it reflects the human experience, allowing us to explore and understand our own emotions through the lives and adventures of others. It’s this shared humanity that makes storytelling such a moving and enduring form.
MORE FROM ASHOK
I have another autobiographical docu-fiction film in post-production, titled A Very Queer Friendship. This is in collaboration with Sandeep TK, an artist and friend also based in Bangalore. This film will document our developing friendship and how our journey becomes the pursuit of our desires. The same desires that had once come between us has now brought us together, as friends, as artistic collaborators, and as kin.
Words Hansika Lohani
Date 05.07.2024