Megan Mylan, 44-year-old filmmaker who was born in California and raised in Dallas, finds ‘some sort of a connect with India' which is beyond explanation. The Academy Award winner is in Delhi for her second Indian documentary, this time on child marriage, shot extensively in West Bengal. The thinking director tells Deebashree Mohanty that her next film is going to be based on the elder care situation in Japan
I don’t know but it feels like my second home,” celebrated American filmmaker Megan Mylan says about her visit to this part of the world. She was here in 2008 for Smile Pinki, a documentary on children with cleft palate which won her the Academy Award for Best Documentary (short subject). Now, she is here to tell the story of Mamata, a 13-year-old girl who almost got married at the age of 14.
“This disturbs me very much. I have always been an independent woman who made her own choices very early on. My parents respected my space and freedom. The thought of a girl getting married and having children when she should be enjoying her own childhood worries me,” Mylan says about the reason why she picked up child marriage as the subject for her upcoming film.
She has already spent a week in the Capital to oversee the screening of After My Garden Grows and Mylan says a lot has changed in India ever since her first outing. “First, I can feel fresh air! On a serious note, the documentary and short-film cinema is getting noticed. People are more aware of this category and there is a buzz around this type of films. PVR Cinemas has provided a platform for filmmakers like me to showcase their story as it is. This is a powerful change,” she tells you.
What drove her towards documentary films in the first placeIJ “There is always an option to change tack and make commercial cinema. I have nothing against any type of films but its the short stories that appeal to me the most. I feel I can do justice to subjects if I can show them as they are without any frills and fancies,” Mylan, whose debut film, The lost Boys of Sudan, a feature-length documentary about two boys who fled the Sudanese civil war for the United States, was well received . And that gave her the confidence to go ahead with Smile Pinki. “There is no looking back for me from here. I want to roam the world and tell special stories. That’s what I am good at,” she says. Through AMGG, the director wants to spread awareness that a girl child is also capable of sustaining a livelihood. All she needs is a chance. Her protagonist in this film grows a vegetable garden and sells the proceeds to earn a living for her family.
“All hell breaks loose when Mamata’s father wants to marry her off to an unsuitable candidate just because she has to be wed. Her elder sister, who was also married off when she was barely a teen, strongly advises her against this. So, Mamata tells her father that she will marry only after her garden grows,” Mylan tells you, explaining the title of her film.
The response to this documentary has been overwhelming and Mylan thinks she will get more footfall once it is released in the theatres but that is not the real reason why she makes her movies. “Documentary filmmakers do not expect to be in the run for the big bucks. We hardly ever break even. But the motive is to make cinema that we believe in, something that we feel could make a difference to someone’s life. If I have been able to influence even one person, my film is a big hit for me,” she concludes.