FIRST DAY OF PRODUCTION.
KALAI VANAKKAM!
Today is the first day of production on my feature film, Vidhya’s Guide to the Afterlife. N-O-N-E of this would be possible without you.
To say I’m excited is an understatement. Driving home from load-in yesterday, I felt very emotional that all these people — some of whom I’ve just met — came together to make a movie about a Tamil family.
For so long, I thought, if I work hard, I can prove I deserve a chance. But this movie has become my chance. But it’s not my chance to prove anything to the industry. It’s my chance to prove that communities can make good art and circumvent the stupid industry.
So! In the spirit of this, here are some other things I’ve seen lately that gave me this feeling:
Buddy Patrick McDonald’s play, Big Bear - oh boy, this made me feel like we should all be putting up larger-than-life plays all the time. It was awesome to see what he created in such a short amount of time. I love having ambitious friends.
Hundreds of Beavers - this is worth a rewatch if you have seen it, but man, Mike Cheslik is such an inspiration to me in just doing what you think is funny and walking past all the red tape to try to get the most amount of actually-cool people to watch your actually-cool thing, no matter way.
The Tierra Whack “Bugs Life” music video. I love when something simple/possibly low budget looks REALLY INTERESTING AND COOL and uses its simplicity as an asset. That hoodie puppet mask thing is so freaking cool.
Boys Go To Jupiter - every scene in this movie felt like the entire team had SO MUCH FUN. I love the idea of making a movie with no sleeper scenes. Go see it!!!!
Thank you all again for your support!
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MORE SOON. LET’S GO!
Rekha