Speaker 1: You are now listening to the Someone's Favorite Productions podcast Network.
Speaker 2: Hello there, and welcome back to the disc connected here
Speaker 2: with Omar and Ranjeet, who are the founders behind a
Speaker 2: company that I sincerely hope everybody hears a lot more
Speaker 2: about for this year. That is the cloud Door. Gentlemen,
Speaker 2: thanks for making time for this.
Speaker 3: Hey, thanks for having us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you for having us.
Speaker 2: The first thing that we should do is define what
Speaker 2: the cloud Door is, and it is an upcoming boutique
Speaker 2: company that is releasing a kickstarter for everybody to donate to. Omar,
Speaker 2: can you share where the name of the cloud Door
Speaker 2: came from?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the name itself came from comes from a
Speaker 1: short money call film. It's kind of expired until film,
Speaker 1: which actually Rinji did a screening of the cloud Door
Speaker 1: at was it? Was it in Stuttgard was it? Or Frankfurt?
Speaker 3: It was the it was the year before last. I
Speaker 3: did one in London at the Garden Cinema, which is
Speaker 3: a new cinema in Covent Garden, and you know we
Speaker 3: did we did one together in Frankfort as well.
Speaker 4: Nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the the idea was I think we've always
Speaker 1: been big fans of kind of alternative Indian cinema, and
Speaker 1: money called is kind of like so important and critical too,
Speaker 1: kind of the experimental, avant guarde side of kind of
Speaker 1: of Indian cinema. So it's a very kind we felt
Speaker 1: it was a very kind of apt title as well,
Speaker 1: very catchy as well, and kind of fitted into kind
Speaker 1: of our kind of ethos and spirit or kind of
Speaker 1: what we want to do with the label is.
Speaker 4: That we do.
Speaker 1: We're we are interested in genre films at the same time,
Speaker 1: but we're also very much kind of focused on kind
Speaker 1: of independ independent of alternative, esoteric mar films that are
Speaker 1: out there which often don't get you know, a platform
Speaker 1: and get don't get seen by kind of film audiences
Speaker 1: and you know and collectors as well. So it kind
Speaker 1: of came from our kind of appreciation, understanding and love
Speaker 1: of kind of money goals kind of work.
Speaker 2: Really, that's I mean, it's it's a noble mission. It's
Speaker 2: something that is vastly underserved across many of these boutique labels. Rogie,
Speaker 2: you guys are focusing on South Asian cinema, primarily Indian cinema. Obviously,
Speaker 2: there there's a very big hole missing in that market.
Speaker 2: But one one question I'd love to hear is why
Speaker 2: has that classically been so underserved or difficult to license
Speaker 2: for For many of these other companies.
Speaker 3: It's it's really falling away as a market. I mean,
Speaker 3: growing up in the UK in the eighties, the actual
Speaker 3: South Asian communities and in fact even other immigrant communities.
Speaker 3: So I'm from the Midlands, you're from the North, and
Speaker 3: there's there's sort of you know, decades old South Asian
Speaker 3: immigrant communities and in those areas in the UK, but
Speaker 3: also the Chinese community in Liverpool, the Turkish community in
Speaker 3: Berlin and parts of Germany were at the forefront of
Speaker 3: the VHS home video market in the eighties. They set
Speaker 3: up their own stores and as well as renting out
Speaker 3: the sort of the latest blockbusters, they also imported a
Speaker 3: lot of stuff from there from their home countries. So
Speaker 3: so I grew up you know, weekly visits, multiple weeklysits
Speaker 3: to the local VHS store renting a whole load of
Speaker 3: not only latest releases, but you know, old movies from
Speaker 3: the from the forties and fifties as well as the latest,
Speaker 3: sort of the latest US blockbuster that was available on
Speaker 3: video as well. So I think there's always been. There's
Speaker 3: always been a market in terms of people wanted to
Speaker 3: watch this stuff. What's really changed over the last few
Speaker 3: years is I've noticed whenever I visit India in the past,
Speaker 3: you know, even up until maybe about ten years ago,
Speaker 3: you could pick up really good quality like DVDs of
Speaker 3: your classic favorites and really cheaply and they were very
Speaker 3: well made, and they had English subtitles, and you know,
Speaker 3: there were decent copies, and that has pretty much disappeared,
Speaker 3: I would say, in the last ten years. The only
Speaker 3: way you can get your hands on this is usually
Speaker 3: sort of bootleg copies from local grocery stores and mobile
Speaker 3: phone stores where it's sort of three films to a DVD,
Speaker 3: not even a DVD, like a VCD, like really low
Speaker 3: res sort of YouTube Brits. Because no one's interested in
Speaker 3: this stuff. It's all it's all available on streaming, you know,
Speaker 3: all the major streamers have sort of entered the South
Speaker 3: Ocean market now and often the stuff, particularly I think
Speaker 3: during the pandemic went straight to straight to streaming effectively. However,
Speaker 3: you know, there is a I think, what surprise owned
Speaker 3: by myself, We just started teasing the idea of even
Speaker 3: doing this is there's a huge there's a huge sort
Speaker 3: of demand for this regardless. You know, I'd love to
Speaker 3: get a lot of these films on home video and
Speaker 3: watch them. I'd love to have all the extras. I'd
Speaker 3: love to have the lovely artwork. And I suppose why
Speaker 3: is it still underserved now? I think there's also a
Speaker 3: sort of opacity. I would say it's sort of mysteriousness
Speaker 3: about how do you license this stuff and how you
Speaker 3: source this stuff that own One and I have sort
Speaker 3: of tried to solve in our various ways as curators,
Speaker 3: and so that's given us the network to be able
Speaker 3: to sort of crack that a little bit, crack that open,
Speaker 3: not just for ourselves, but for other curators, for venues,
Speaker 3: for maybe other labels as well. So I think I
Speaker 3: think it's a combination of that sort of market completely
Speaker 3: changing over the last ten years, but also for those
Speaker 3: people who are interested just having no idea how you
Speaker 3: find these films and how you're licensed them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been really interesting to see people react to
Speaker 2: some of the major releases, especially from that part of
Speaker 2: the world, that have hit, like Mona Macabreau in the
Speaker 2: in the US that put out the Bollywood horror box
Speaker 2: set and seeing the people literally like fall in love
Speaker 2: with the cinema as they finally get to watch through
Speaker 2: the films. What has really made me excited about this
Speaker 2: is you both seem uniquely qualified to tackle this Omar.
Speaker 2: What kind of backgrounds do you guys have that has
Speaker 2: led to the professional ability to be able to tackle
Speaker 2: something as grand as this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think just to go back to what Rinji
Speaker 1: they're saying, I just kind of echoey sentiments about kind
Speaker 1: of I think what's happened in India is that the
Speaker 1: kind of the home video kind of market has collapsed.
Speaker 4: There's kind of void ground. It's kind of like an abyss.
Speaker 1: And a lot of films, I mean, Netflix, Amazon Prime,
Speaker 1: all these kind of streaming sites have an important role
Speaker 1: to play. But unfortunately, I think even though they do
Speaker 1: hoover up a lot of the independent kind of films
Speaker 1: and put them on their kind of platform, it can
Speaker 1: be sometimes difficult to even find those films if you
Speaker 1: want to kind of watch them as well. So there's
Speaker 1: challenges there with kind of the algorithm, which had been
Speaker 1: talked about endlessly by many different kind of people, which
Speaker 1: I think is still the case but I think now,
Speaker 1: I think as curators, I think what we discovered is
Speaker 1: that it's it is difficult to find those films a license.
Speaker 1: But I think once you kind of get into that
Speaker 1: world and start speaking to people and banging on doors,
Speaker 1: it is really kind of critical. But kind of going
Speaker 1: back to what you just said about kind of my background.
Speaker 1: So my background is very much similar to Kin and
Speaker 1: Jeets in terms of like film curation and programming. I
Speaker 1: initially started as a teacher, so I was I was
Speaker 1: teaching film media for fifteen years at six to one college,
Speaker 1: teaching kind of filmmaking, storyboarding, film analysis. So I did
Speaker 1: that fifteen years.
Speaker 4: I left.
Speaker 1: And then I went to University of Manchester did a PhD.
Speaker 1: So I got funded by the Arts Humanities Research Council to.
Speaker 4: Do a PhD.
Speaker 1: And my interest was very much in parallel cinema, Indian
Speaker 1: parallel cinema, so independent kind of film movement, the first
Speaker 1: one reading in India and South Asia, postcolonial one in
Speaker 1: the late sixties early seventies. So I kind of researched that.
Speaker 1: So I spent a bit of time in academia. I
Speaker 1: left that, I mean in a kind of a different
Speaker 1: role now doing something completely different to kind of film,
Speaker 1: but the whole kind of film kind of fixation and
Speaker 1: obsession and passion was always in the background. It is something
Speaker 1: I was always kind of doing on a constant basis.
Speaker 1: So in twenty seventeen, I founded one of kind of
Speaker 1: North's first regular kind of seasons on independent kind of films,
Speaker 1: which is based at home in Manchester, which is one
Speaker 1: of the Northwest kind of like most important kind of
Speaker 1: cultural kind of spaces for showing independent films. So I
Speaker 1: found it a season called Not Just Bollywood. So we
Speaker 1: each year we've been trying to show a slate of
Speaker 1: different kind of alternative independent films to audiences. Do q
Speaker 1: and as do other work around it introductions, so try
Speaker 1: to kind of broadened kind of audiences kind of ideas
Speaker 1: of what Indian cinema and what South Asian cinema is
Speaker 1: to them, because I think it's still looked at through
Speaker 1: the prism of kind of Bollywood and the way in
Speaker 1: which kind of film culture often kind of represents and
Speaker 1: prioritizes kind of the mainstream films is often at the
Speaker 1: expense of kind.
Speaker 4: Of the you know, the.
Speaker 1: The more interesting kind of films that often fall to
Speaker 1: the wayside and no one kind of really engages with.
Speaker 4: So I think.
Speaker 1: I've always been an avid collector myself in terms of
Speaker 1: Blu rays and DVDs as well and vhs. Remember the
Speaker 1: first VHS I bought was I think, I think with
Speaker 1: Batman and die Hard from.
Speaker 4: The local.
Speaker 1: Either it was Boots or wool Worst and remember, you know,
Speaker 1: it started very early, that kind of relationship with physical
Speaker 1: and I think it's for me, it's and I think
Speaker 1: for un Cheeth as well. It's been really really fundamental
Speaker 1: to kind of keeping a lot of these films alive
Speaker 1: and keeping them going because streaming is one thing, but
Speaker 1: it can't replicate what physical media does because it gives
Speaker 1: you the actual quality of the film. It gives you
Speaker 1: all those special features.
Speaker 4: It's like vinyl.
Speaker 1: You pick up a piece of vinyl, you pick up
Speaker 1: the album, you immerse yourself in that whole experience. You're
Speaker 1: reading the notes, that kind of you're listening to the
Speaker 1: tracks one by one, you're not skipping when you are
Speaker 1: onlike you know on Spotify and stuff. So I've always
Speaker 1: loved that kind of culture and the investment and the
Speaker 1: time that goes into producing all these Blu rays. So
Speaker 1: I'd always want to look at them and go, wow,
Speaker 1: this is it's incredible. Why isn't there something like this
Speaker 1: for South Asian cinema. There should be because it's such
Speaker 1: a huge kind of you know, often it's often been
Speaker 1: a it still is a very kind of gap in
Speaker 1: the market, really so, and I always like would tweet
Speaker 1: about write about it, and Mi Gright would be why
Speaker 1: criter you and why you're releasing all these you know,
Speaker 1: Indian films, saying kind of like arrow, and I think
Speaker 1: it was a Master of Cinema Eureka. There were moments
Speaker 1: where those boutique labels have flirted with the idea of
Speaker 1: kind of releasing Indian films, but they've often gone down
Speaker 1: the root of a strategic ray films, which is, you know,
Speaker 1: the classic kind of default position, just release a ray
Speaker 1: film and will be okay. And I think when I
Speaker 1: spoke with remembers people with Nick Wrigley, who I think
Speaker 1: was involved with Masters of Cinema Eureka initially I think
Speaker 1: he still think he works an Indicator and powerhouse and
Speaker 1: stuff now and he I said to him, look, why
Speaker 1: you only released that one ray film, which was Abijahn
Speaker 1: and it was on DVD and said, come on, let's
Speaker 1: do some more. There's so much stuff out there you
Speaker 1: could release. And I remember the comments coming back with
Speaker 1: that there's just not an appetite there. Audiences don't want
Speaker 1: to buy these films. But this was admittedly, I think
Speaker 1: ten years ago, so it was like a decade ago.
Speaker 1: But I think I think there is a significant audience
Speaker 1: out there who would want to purchase, you know, South
Speaker 1: Asian Indian films on Blu Ray have them on their
Speaker 1: shelf in the way in which you know, Criteria Arrow
Speaker 1: have kind of given them these releases. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: think i'd say I'm and I'd say we're pretty qualified
Speaker 1: to kind of do this project.
Speaker 2: What about you, Renjie, what's your background? Like they got
Speaker 2: you here And.
Speaker 3: I'd come into the film work pretty late in life,
Speaker 3: so I'm a businessman as my day job and that's
Speaker 3: what pays the bills. But actually, I think this is
Speaker 3: probably the first project where it sort of covers all
Speaker 3: the bases in terms of my experience because we're setting
Speaker 3: up a new business effectively, So I've got all that background.
Speaker 3: I know what to do. I know how to set
Speaker 3: up a limited company, I know how to get an
Speaker 3: account and all that sort of stuff. Done it before
Speaker 3: plenty of times. But on the film side, it's something
Speaker 3: I got involved with it really as a supporter to
Speaker 3: begin with about sort of eight nine years ago, just
Speaker 3: attending all of the different dy film clubs and independent
Speaker 3: venues and film fests in London. There was a real
Speaker 3: sort of renaissance of that you know in a while back,
Speaker 3: which is continuing today thankfully, and just like giving them
Speaker 3: moral support and creating social media account and like promote
Speaker 3: all of these great things that are happening. And as
Speaker 3: a sort of as a punter as an audience member,
Speaker 3: I also sort of picked up on you know, what
Speaker 3: went well and what didn't go well, and you know
Speaker 3: what I was looking for in a really good created event.
Speaker 3: And as part of that, I you know, I got
Speaker 3: invited to do some myself as well, because just sort
Speaker 3: of talking to people involved in that world and supporting
Speaker 3: behind the scenes, I suppose sort of people picked up
Speaker 3: on the fact that I that I love cinema myself
Speaker 3: and all forms of it as well, and we're interested
Speaker 3: in my choices and in putting them on in venues
Speaker 3: and talking about them and doing all the sort of
Speaker 3: extras as well. So I started out as a film
Speaker 3: creator screening Octopusy the Bond film under a railway arch
Speaker 3: in East London in like a real sort of hipster
Speaker 3: area of like upcoming East London. And it was it
Speaker 3: was a proper hipster venue because by day it was
Speaker 3: a vinyl shop and they also had like a pop
Speaker 3: up restaurant and then during the evening that they'd clear
Speaker 3: away all the all the crates and there'd be there'd
Speaker 3: be a set of steps bricks steps, so people would
Speaker 3: just sit on and the screen would come down and
Speaker 3: they're just put the films and films in the evening.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately they lost their license, but it was while that
Speaker 3: then you lasted it. It was quite a cool place and
Speaker 3: the guy who was like inviting guest curators there was
Speaker 3: there was a chap who used to run a sci
Speaker 3: fi theater in London which was a great little film
Speaker 3: club when it lasted. They used to do used to
Speaker 3: do a different sci fi film every month and some
Speaker 3: real like you know, cult films and rarities in their
Speaker 3: in their program. But what they would also do is
Speaker 3: they would get an artist to do a special especially
Speaker 3: commission poster and postcard for it, and they would get
Speaker 3: a scientist related to the topic of the film to
Speaker 3: do a little talk and it was great, and yeah,
Speaker 3: shout out to the Graham at Sci Fi Theater wherever
Speaker 3: he is. And it was a great little film club.
Speaker 3: They started off in the back of a pub and
Speaker 3: then they and then they sort of branched out to
Speaker 3: actual cinemas and so he invited so, look, there's an
Speaker 3: independent venue here. They're sort of pretty much open, so
Speaker 3: you're doing whatever you want. And I thought, okay, well,
Speaker 3: out of all of the things that are probably never
Speaker 3: going to get invited to do, I'm going to do
Speaker 3: something called turban Scene on Screen, where I did a
Speaker 3: whole monthly set of screenings about films where there was
Speaker 3: sort of notable leading or sort of side characters that
Speaker 3: wore turbans and particularly sort of mable seeks. And particularly
Speaker 3: for the first three or four films films that resonated
Speaker 3: with me growing up, so Octopusy, The English Patient, and
Speaker 3: The Life Aquatic, the Wes Anderson film. So those are
Speaker 3: the first three films, and then as I sort of
Speaker 3: got into putting on the events, I did everything around
Speaker 3: it as well, so that I've managed to get Kabir Beeddy,
Speaker 3: the guy who plays the henchmen in octopusy to Skypitt
Speaker 3: from India and actually introduce the film. And that was
Speaker 3: a coup from my very first screening and it sort
Speaker 3: of went on from that. You know, I had live
Speaker 3: music for the Wes Anderson film. I managed to find
Speaker 3: a British singer songwriter who knew Portuguese and who could
Speaker 3: sing the David Bowie songs in Portuguese like just like
Speaker 3: in the film, and we had a little concert for
Speaker 3: thirty minutes before the screening with the English patient. I
Speaker 3: managed to find a British South Asian filmmaker had done
Speaker 3: a documentary about seeks who served in World War Two,
Speaker 3: and so we've got a little bit of education to
Speaker 3: go with the film, to say, actually, you know this
Speaker 3: is this is a real thing, this is you know,
Speaker 3: this is a great sort of form of representation. So
Speaker 3: what started off as a sort of bit of fun
Speaker 3: on the side, so slowly as the screenings developed and
Speaker 3: I started doing midnight double bills, I started sort of
Speaker 3: branching out and all sorts of you know, all sorts
Speaker 3: of crazy films that I love to watch and share
Speaker 3: with other people. Is over the years, I sort of
Speaker 3: somehow accidentally became an expert at it. So all the
Speaker 3: stuff that I thought was like super super difficult because
Speaker 3: I'm nobody who just doesn't know how to do this
Speaker 3: stuff apparently was super difficult for everyone. And just by
Speaker 3: doing it year after year, I've sort of somehow, somehow
Speaker 3: sort of cracked it. And then and and I try
Speaker 3: and share that with as many people as I can,
Speaker 3: because I think, I think the more people who are
Speaker 3: able to do this, the better for the film ecosystem.
Speaker 3: So I get invited every year to talk to film
Speaker 3: creation students at the National Film Television School here in
Speaker 3: the UK, and I try to mentor as many sort
Speaker 3: of up and coming film creators as I can in
Speaker 3: terms of just linking them up with this is the
Speaker 3: contact you need if you if you need to license
Speaker 3: a film, and this archive or this is a contact
Speaker 3: for a venue if you if you're thinking of doing
Speaker 3: your program there. Because I think the other aspects as
Speaker 3: to my background and why I love doing what I
Speaker 3: do is I think London compared to other European cities
Speaker 3: and certainly the big US cities, so like New York,
Speaker 3: LA and then Paris, Rome, Milan as Urich. It just
Speaker 3: doesn't have It doesn't have the amount of sort of
Speaker 3: repertory film going that you'd expect for the size of population.
Speaker 3: It has a lot, there's a lot going on, and
Speaker 3: there are some fantastic venues here, but you just look.
Speaker 3: You just look at some of these other cities and
Speaker 3: you visit them and you think, this is the sort
Speaker 3: of if you scale it up to London, we're nowhere
Speaker 3: near what's happening in what's happening in New York comparis,
Speaker 3: and so I think, I think in that void of
Speaker 3: big cinemas or institutional film institutes and the like sort
Speaker 3: of doing this stuff, it's the DIY community. It's the
Speaker 3: it's the film club putting on a DVD in their
Speaker 3: local library or church hall. Are sort of filling that gap.
Speaker 3: And I'm sort of glad to be part of that community.
Speaker 2: Really, that is incredible. I mean, you've been curating supplements
Speaker 2: for releases for a long time. Basically it sounds like
Speaker 2: in a live fashion, which is immense. One thing that
Speaker 2: makes this whole you know, home video interesting and needed
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five more than anything, I think, is
Speaker 2: those contextual extras that you literally already doing. So who
Speaker 2: are some of the companies that have been inspiring you,
Speaker 2: guys that you're going to be trying to live up
Speaker 2: to some of these supplements when you release your films.
Speaker 3: Well, if I can just say a shout out to
Speaker 3: some of the anonymous companies first, because as a film creator,
Speaker 3: if it wasn't for so For example, I know I
Speaker 3: screamed I screened like an old French black and white film.
Speaker 3: If it wasn't for the fact that a Korean distributor
Speaker 3: had put that in DVD, I wouldn't have been able
Speaker 3: to get a decent copy of it. So it's similar
Speaker 3: to I think I've got it near me, just give
Speaker 3: me a moment. I'm screening this film later in the year.
Speaker 3: It's a British film called Our Mother's House with Dirt Bogart. Now,
Speaker 3: I've managed to license this from from major sort of
Speaker 3: licensing firm, but you can't get hold of it anywhere.
Speaker 3: So it's only because there's this archive collection DVD of
Speaker 3: it that I'm able to screen it at all. And
Speaker 3: I'm not I'm not sort of a format snob. If
Speaker 3: if I have to screen it on on some nineties
Speaker 3: DVD I will. It's better than not screening it at all.
Speaker 3: Quite frankly, I don't want to be sort of tied
Speaker 3: down to just what's what's coming out the latest restoration circuit.
Speaker 3: Although I am thankful for all the sort of new
Speaker 3: restorations that are coming out, I don't want to just
Speaker 3: be sort of bound to that. So a shout out
Speaker 3: to all those nineties DVD producers and two thousands that
Speaker 3: that and their stuff is still circulating on eBay. And
Speaker 3: if it wasn't for them, quite a few of my
Speaker 3: screenings just wouldn't have gone ahead. In fact, even the screening,
Speaker 3: even the screening of the cloud Door, which our label
Speaker 3: is named after. If it wasn't for the German producer
Speaker 3: who had created who would commission money called to make
Speaker 3: that unusual erotic short film for his compilation DVD called
Speaker 3: Erotic Tales Volume one that I think was published in
Speaker 3: the nineties of which I have a copy, You wouldn't
Speaker 3: have been able to even see that film because you
Speaker 3: can't get it hold of it any other way. There
Speaker 3: is no there is no high definition transfer of that.
Speaker 3: So shout all the anonymous labels first, and then in
Speaker 3: terms of these days, I mean I'm a big fan
Speaker 3: of what Vinegar Syndrome is doing in the US. I mean,
Speaker 3: there's just if I could affought to import everything, I would,
Speaker 3: but I have a sort of pick and choose, I
Speaker 3: think out of their sort of sub labels or partner labels.
Speaker 3: I really love what Canadian International Pictures are doing, and
Speaker 3: I love the I love the packaging of it as well.
Speaker 3: They have they pick really good artists, they have really
Speaker 3: good they have really good extras on there, and they
Speaker 3: are sort of genuinely films that no one else would
Speaker 3: otherwise release, so that they're you know, there may be
Speaker 3: limited editions, but I think those actual those actual artifacts
Speaker 3: will live on for decades as a way of curators
Speaker 3: being able to access that material in a good format
Speaker 3: enough to potentially screen. You know, in the UK we
Speaker 3: have Radiance Films that was doing a cracking amount in
Speaker 3: terms of just getting things out there and making things available.
Speaker 3: Oh mile, hangover to you. You've you've you're a big collector.
Speaker 3: You're a much bigger collector than I am.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I think you mentioned who do you just Radiance? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think I think the usual source of bets really
Speaker 1: is kind of like things labels like Criterion Collection Arrow.
Speaker 1: I think Second Side of doing some great stuff as well.
Speaker 1: I think in terms of where we're headed in terms
Speaker 1: of like South Asian Indian kind of cinema, I think
Speaker 1: Second Run has been really important in the work that they.
Speaker 4: In the UK.
Speaker 1: So Meley Modi who kind of founded and set Second
Speaker 1: Run and still going, and they still release a lot
Speaker 1: of really important Eastern European kind of films, but they've
Speaker 1: also had a concerted effort. I think they've They've not
Speaker 1: been I think they've done brilliantly to release whatever they
Speaker 1: can in terms of the South Asian film, so I
Speaker 1: think a couple of films from a global Krishna and
Speaker 1: I think they've done also just recently one that I've
Speaker 1: kind of written the essay for the book that I've forgot,
Speaker 1: the film is Now You Issue Always has been released,
Speaker 1: which is a money poor moneypuri film. And also most
Speaker 1: recently as well, they did the Governed and Arab Indian
Speaker 1: film The Tent, which has also been released by them.
Speaker 1: So I think Criterion Arrow, Second Run are really important.
Speaker 1: So a lot of those kind of labels, but I
Speaker 1: think those labels have been consistently brilliant in terms of
Speaker 1: their authoring of their kind of discs, in terms of
Speaker 1: their booklets, artwork as well. I think those are the
Speaker 1: things we want to kind of aspire to and kind
Speaker 1: have been paying very very kind of close attention to
Speaker 1: as well. I think it's a growing, growing market though.
Speaker 1: I think every time I kind of look and go online,
Speaker 1: I'm seeing a new kind of label emerging. I think
Speaker 1: a twenty four are putting out their own stuff now,
Speaker 1: one which is like a beautifully kind of package, and
Speaker 1: kind of the love and care and attention that kind
Speaker 1: of goes into all of this is really something that
Speaker 1: I think we want to kind of aspire to and
Speaker 1: hopefully we can.
Speaker 2: The fact that you guys are listing details on your
Speaker 2: Kickstarter page that are transparent and things that matter to
Speaker 2: people that are buying these, like authoring by Fidelity in Motion,
Speaker 2: you can tell that you're immersed in this world. You
Speaker 2: know what you're doing. What were when you were setting
Speaker 2: out to make decisions on these what were some of
Speaker 2: the just really obvious this is absolutely what we have
Speaker 2: to have on every single release type of decisions.
Speaker 3: So when we were really starting out, we knew nothing
Speaker 3: quite friendly, So so sort of the origin story would be.
Speaker 3: I think was your tweet you posted online basically saying, hey,
Speaker 3: you've what if I started a label foundation cinema and
Speaker 3: like you've got a huge response. Well, one of the
Speaker 3: responses was me like messaging you saying cut me in
Speaker 3: on this. I've been thinking about this for years. Let's
Speaker 3: let's do it. And but we literally knew nothing. I mean,
Speaker 3: we had contacts, we were you know, we we bought
Speaker 3: home video. We were we were users, you know, we
Speaker 3: were we were customers. We we knew about the licensing
Speaker 3: angle from from screening this stuff. And I suppose we've
Speaker 3: got our film, not in terms of you know, we
Speaker 3: know which films potentially would resonate in terms of the
Speaker 3: ones that we would like to release, but we we
Speaker 3: literally knew nothing about like how do you actually create
Speaker 3: a blu ray? Like what are the steps? And we
Speaker 3: had to pee, we had to sort of piece it
Speaker 3: together jigsaw piece by jigsaw piece over about it took
Speaker 3: us a year, didn't it omar? I'd say, you know, okay,
Speaker 3: you've got old you've got to author it. You've got
Speaker 3: to get the materials, you've got to get this, you've
Speaker 3: got to get that or get the packaging, the manufacturer
Speaker 3: is a different company. There might be a broker between
Speaker 3: you and a manufacturer, you know, with all of this stuff.
Speaker 3: And you know, the people in our network were like
Speaker 3: really really helpful, and I think I think it's been
Speaker 3: probably down to that original point in terms of everyone
Speaker 3: wanted something to happen in the space, the South Asian space.
Speaker 3: So everyone has been really willing us to make this work.
Speaker 3: And because of that, they've been super generous with their
Speaker 3: with their contact books, with their advice, with their tips.
Speaker 3: You know, either other labels, for example, or people in
Speaker 3: the world who are collectors, who tell us from a
Speaker 3: customer perspectively, what do you look for when you buy
Speaker 3: a when you buy a bouret, what will you actually
Speaker 3: what do you sort of care about in particular? And
Speaker 3: they tended to be the same things that we care about,
Speaker 3: So that's sort of okay, We're on the right track then.
Speaker 3: And I suppose you know, someone and myself have have
Speaker 3: our sort of particular strengths. You know, Omar's great at
Speaker 3: the copy you know, he's written, he's written a book
Speaker 3: about parallel cinema. He can he can he can be
Speaker 3: an expert on all sorts of releases, and I suppose
Speaker 3: my background in terms of the event side, branding, packaging,
Speaker 3: commissioning artists. You know, I was able to go out
Speaker 3: to my network in terms of, you know, can you
Speaker 3: help us with the logo, can you help us with
Speaker 3: with you know, a custom slipcover and all that sort
Speaker 3: of stuff. So I think between the two of us
Speaker 3: and our sort of contact books and the generosity of
Speaker 3: people we knew, we we sort of pieced it together
Speaker 3: bit by bit, and I suppose what do we care
Speaker 3: about and why does that come out on the Kickstarter?
Speaker 3: Is what we want to do and this is this
Speaker 3: is aligned with my programming as well, is we want
Speaker 3: to sort of break South Asian cinema out of a
Speaker 3: sort of ghetto. Basically, we don't want people to see
Speaker 3: it as it's this niche thing, right, It's it's just
Speaker 3: a genre. It isn't if you if you look at it,
Speaker 3: it's it's it's a thousand genres. It's it's it's it's expansive,
Speaker 3: it's and we aspire as a label to do, you know,
Speaker 3: the latest release versus something from the nineteen forties, a
Speaker 3: mainstream national cinema to an obscure, experimental film, you know,
Speaker 3: documentaries as well as fiction. We don't want to sort of,
Speaker 3: you know, tire ourselves to a particular subpart of South
Speaker 3: Asian cinema, and therefore we want, we want those picks
Speaker 3: to be to be published in a way that is
Speaker 3: seen as devoting the same sort of love, care and
Speaker 3: attention that those types of cinemas would receive if they
Speaker 3: were an Italian film, or a Japanese film or a
Speaker 3: Hollywood film. Therefore, it's not just the picking of the film,
Speaker 3: it's the way that we're presenting it. And therefore we
Speaker 3: want the custom artwork. We want the slip cover, we
Speaker 3: want the scnavo case that sort of you know, has
Speaker 3: a full frame sort of artwork on it. We want
Speaker 3: the extras. We want to try and get cast and
Speaker 3: crew involved, because that if we were a customer and
Speaker 3: the film was available in that we would say wow.
Speaker 3: And we want we want the people to receive this
Speaker 3: to really love it.
Speaker 2: That's a daring, fine mission. I'm all about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, I was just going to go back to
Speaker 1: oteth if it's kind of like add some more kind
Speaker 1: of points. I think he makes a lot of really
Speaker 1: important points. But also it's important to stress that this
Speaker 1: is something we've just kind of been doing in between
Speaker 1: everything else. So we've got families, we've got kids, we've
Speaker 1: got day jobs, so we're trying to get this in
Speaker 1: this in like late at night or where we can
Speaker 1: a little bit of time work on the kind of
Speaker 1: you know, bits on the label. So it's been tricky
Speaker 1: in that respect, and I think he's what Renjita said
Speaker 1: is is really important in terms of like the generosity
Speaker 1: of what kind of people can willing to say and
Speaker 1: help out and say, yeah, yeah, you know this is
Speaker 1: the you know, the person to speak to about this
Speaker 1: and you know, particular aspect of the label the next step.
Speaker 1: So people have been really kind of helpful and generous
Speaker 1: with their kind of time.
Speaker 4: But yeah, so I.
Speaker 1: Think it's been a learning curve for us as well.
Speaker 1: I think we've learned so much along the way in
Speaker 1: terms of from where it kind of starts and where
Speaker 1: it's kind of kind of end up as well.
Speaker 2: Omar, why don't you tell us about this first film
Speaker 2: that people can look into on the Kickstarter and what
Speaker 2: your first release will be of.
Speaker 1: In terms of the film. So the reason we've kind
Speaker 1: of chosen this film, we feel and it is is
Speaker 1: considered to be the most kind of one of the
Speaker 1: most important cult films in India. Really, so there's a
Speaker 1: kind of real kind of co audience out there for
Speaker 1: this film. I think it's a really important film in
Speaker 1: terms of So I've written a book on Indian Parallel
Speaker 1: Cinema which looks at the history of the movement from
Speaker 1: the sixties up until the mid nineties. And the director
Speaker 1: Gomul Swarup, who's really important to the movement, who trained
Speaker 1: under Money Call as well worked with a collaborator a
Speaker 1: number of kind of films very much a bit of
Speaker 1: anomaly as a filmmaker, I would argue and am that
Speaker 1: would be there is a very kind of anomalous film
Speaker 1: as well. It's I was going to describe the plot,
Speaker 1: but I can't. I was going to say, the story
Speaker 1: about this young boy called home growing up in a
Speaker 1: village in Rajasthan and he can do like weird and
Speaker 1: strange things like holding his breath for a you know,
Speaker 1: ridiculous amount of time. But it's kind of like it's
Speaker 1: very much a kind of a fever dream of a film. Really,
Speaker 1: it's kind of tied together with many different kind of
Speaker 1: surreal sequences, but there's nothing quite like it in Indian cinema.
Speaker 1: When you do watch this film, it kind of gets
Speaker 1: under your skin and you start thinking about film as well,
Speaker 1: but you start thinking about kind of Indian culture, about
Speaker 1: kind of history, about politics, about science. It makes you
Speaker 1: think and it kind of opens your mind. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of weirdly enough, it was kind of like the
Speaker 1: way in which it was marketed very much as a
Speaker 1: kind of like an LSD kind of trip Sack kind
Speaker 1: of experience, which it is actually depending on how you
Speaker 1: watch the film and what kind of moodier in as well.
Speaker 1: So I think this is a and Donald's wroupe has
Speaker 1: been really generous with his time as well, and kind
Speaker 1: of like when we kind of approached him initially said
Speaker 1: we're gonna, you know, we want to release on Darby
Speaker 1: Dara as a kind of a you know, on Blu Ray.
Speaker 1: He he's been really really kind of instrumental and kind
Speaker 1: of making sure it does happen as well. So it's
Speaker 1: important to haven't got experimental cinema in India, but also
Speaker 1: the history of parallel cinema. It's a really really critical
Speaker 1: kind of film in terms of cult kind of cinema
Speaker 1: in India as well. So I think those are some
Speaker 1: of the reasons why we feel it's it feels like
Speaker 1: an appropriate kind of first release. I know Renjet is
Speaker 1: a huge fan of the film himself. He can talk
Speaker 1: more about he has shown the film himself. I think
Speaker 1: a couple of times.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think. I think the film has only been
Speaker 3: screened three times in the UK that the first time
Speaker 3: I was in the audience, it was at the London
Speaker 3: Film Festival. It was a recent restoration that was doing
Speaker 3: the rounds of the sort of film festivals, but only
Speaker 3: got screened the once as far as I know. And
Speaker 3: then I got hold of it, screened it myself, and
Speaker 3: I invited Omar along and we did a double bill
Speaker 3: of Roger Corman's The Trip with Come All Through on
Speaker 3: the Bid and we talked about that sort of the
Speaker 3: sort of circular connection of you know, the Roger Corman's film,
Speaker 3: sort of tapping into that sort of world of Leary
Speaker 3: and and sort of Tibetan philosophy and Indian philosophy and
Speaker 3: and sort of marrying that up with this sort of
Speaker 3: chemical substances that can sort of achieve the shortcut to enlightenment.
Speaker 3: So so using Indian philosophy to sell drugs, and then
Speaker 3: and then this sort of restoration marketing where there was
Speaker 3: a great sort of pull line on the poster that
Speaker 3: this was the great Indian LSD trip. So using then
Speaker 3: a sort of an American film trope which was used
Speaker 3: to you know, in other films as well, like Kubrick
Speaker 3: two thousand and one. Was I think on the poster
Speaker 3: like you know this is you know, you're going on
Speaker 3: a trip. You know, it's this sort of this this
Speaker 3: idea of experiencing a film in the cinema as a
Speaker 3: sort of mind expanding experience then being applied to this
Speaker 3: otherwise very unpacifiable film, because how do you sell this
Speaker 3: film otherwise doesn't fit into any genre or type, It
Speaker 3: doesn't conform to any sort of expectations. So I found
Speaker 3: that fascinating as a sort of connection on a double
Speaker 3: bill basis. And then that the third time that I
Speaker 3: know that it was screen was one of the students
Speaker 3: that I met at the National Film Televisi school actually
Speaker 3: was doing a season and wanted to screen it. And
Speaker 3: he'd actually studied under Come all through in India before
Speaker 3: he came to London, and I connected them up with
Speaker 3: the with the archive to get it licensed, and actually,
Speaker 3: in fact, that was the first screening of the film
Speaker 3: done under the terms of our new license. Because what's
Speaker 3: the other thing to talk about is we're not just
Speaker 3: a label. We want to be a film licensing service
Speaker 3: as well, because as curators, one of the biggest frustrations
Speaker 3: we have not just Withinian distributors, but I get it
Speaker 3: with French and Italian and other distributors as well, is
Speaker 3: some people just don't understand the economics of indie cinemas.
Speaker 3: You know, you want to screen a film and a
Speaker 3: forty seat tiny little microcinema, you can't. You can't charge
Speaker 3: hundreds and hundreds of pounds or dollars because you're never
Speaker 3: going to make the money back. And they're used to
Speaker 3: only having their films screened at major festivals like a
Speaker 3: one off screening. I'll make a few thousand and then
Speaker 3: that's it. It will never be seen again. Whereas we're
Speaker 3: very much interested in how do we get dozens of
Speaker 3: film clubs to screen this film to micro audiences, because
Speaker 3: that's how you that's how you keep the memory of
Speaker 3: a film alive, and that's how you keep sort of
Speaker 3: film Culture Alive is actually screening it and talking about
Speaker 3: these films. So so our deal and hopefully all our
Speaker 3: feature deals will be not only do we want the
Speaker 3: license to put this out on home video, but we
Speaker 3: want a flat affordable rate that small cinemas and film
Speaker 3: clubs can then actually screen this as well. So and
Speaker 3: we've secured that with with Ondadad and we've had one
Speaker 3: screening under that under that license, say so that he
Speaker 3: was very pleased to get to get a decent rate.
Speaker 2: That is a very important part of this one thing
Speaker 2: that has even just from the first time that you
Speaker 2: you both started talking about this online, it felt like
Speaker 2: the start of something special. It felt like something that
Speaker 2: this is people advocating for an entire movement, an entire
Speaker 2: generation of film that had not had not not free access,
Speaker 2: but like even the ability for people to truly discover
Speaker 2: And Yeah, the way you describe that is immense. I'm
Speaker 2: so appreciative of that. And to tie it to one
Speaker 2: other thing, on your Kickstarter you use a very specific
Speaker 2: word that I immediately fell in love with and I
Speaker 2: want to hear what it means to you, because on
Speaker 2: your Kickstarter you list South Asian films and diaspark films,
Speaker 2: and that is I don't know, as a white male
Speaker 2: in the United States that is one of the most
Speaker 2: privileged people in the world and not knowing what you know,
Speaker 2: dealing with diaspores is not for me personally, but I
Speaker 2: work in immigration and it means the world to me
Speaker 2: to hear somebody talk about this. So what does that
Speaker 2: word mean to your guys's mission?
Speaker 1: For us, I think the focus is not just going
Speaker 1: to be on you know, film from South Asia, but
Speaker 1: we're very much interested in those filmmakers who active within
Speaker 1: the South Asian diaspora, not just here in the UK,
Speaker 1: but also in the US as well, because I think
Speaker 1: a lot of there a lot of those films the
Speaker 1: South Asian dasper films have also you know, rarely ever
Speaker 1: get screened and not available to access as well. So
Speaker 1: I think we we kind of want to kind of
Speaker 1: keep it as broad as possible as well, to try
Speaker 1: and be able to kind of consider and think about
Speaker 1: films outside of just kind of you know, the canon,
Speaker 1: so to speak, as well, and start thinking about kind
Speaker 1: of the aspect kind of filmmakers here in the UK
Speaker 1: as well, And there's there is quite a lot actually
Speaker 1: here as well in terms of like what we can
Speaker 1: access from the different kind of archives that are available
Speaker 1: as well. A lot of the stuff, some of it
Speaker 1: has been digitized and is available kind of kind of
Speaker 1: through the BFI as well. But then there's a lot
Speaker 1: of filmmakers who just once again people might not know
Speaker 1: about them, and collectives as well, people might not know
Speaker 1: about them as well, So it's another opportunity to think
Speaker 1: about and make their kind of work access as well,
Speaker 1: you know, accessible to kind of cinemas as well, and
Speaker 1: too audiences. So there is a there is a broader
Speaker 1: kind of a cultural kind of aspect to what we're
Speaker 1: trying to do as well. And I think what Brinjeeth
Speaker 1: was saying about kind of making these films kind of
Speaker 1: accessible to kind of cinemas as well is fundamental really
Speaker 1: and kind of sits quite importantly alongside what we're trying
Speaker 1: to do with the label in terms of getting the
Speaker 1: physical kind of media out to kind of to you know,
Speaker 1: to audiences as well. I think it is important because
Speaker 1: I find every year whenever I try to curate something,
Speaker 1: I come across so many kind of barriers when it
Speaker 1: comes to discussing and negotiating with cinemas because they just
Speaker 1: can't get the fees that's these distributors, a licensee kind
Speaker 1: of rights holders are asking for is just simply extortion
Speaker 1: and it just doesn't work and it's not practical in
Speaker 1: kind of the economics. That model that was there before
Speaker 1: is not sustainable now. So it's very much the lower
Speaker 1: the fee the bear is really and I think that
Speaker 1: we're trying to do with with there, I think is
Speaker 1: going to be kind of like hopefully open the door
Speaker 1: and other people we're hoping will also take note, because
Speaker 1: I think a lot of Indian distributors based in India
Speaker 1: who've got offices around the world don't really understand the
Speaker 1: dynamics of kind of the way in which audience is
Speaker 1: for work and also what cinemas are facing. Independent cinemas
Speaker 1: are facing, you know, so many cuts and so many
Speaker 1: kind of budget issues, and audience is kind of changing
Speaker 1: as well. So there's many different factors and dimensions to
Speaker 1: the way in which which you know, Indian distributors and
Speaker 1: by scenes holders kind of sometimes close their eyes to
Speaker 1: and just oblivious to. So I think our model, hopefully
Speaker 1: once it is kind of put into practice, will we're
Speaker 1: hoping kick open a door for kind of other people
Speaker 1: to take note as well. So we're in this very
Speaker 1: much for kind of film audiences, and it kind of
Speaker 1: you know, I wasn't I'm going to say educating audiences,
Speaker 1: but kind of really kind of broadening kind of their
Speaker 1: understanding of kind of what Southeast South Asian cinema can be.
Speaker 4: Really it's important.
Speaker 2: So looking at the future, I know that a lot
Speaker 2: of people that have never started a label, which is
Speaker 2: most people don't necessarily grasp that you can't just start
Speaker 2: and put five films out a month. It's literally not
Speaker 2: a feasible thing unless you are inherently grotesquely wealthy. So
Speaker 2: what are what are the future plans for the cloud Door?
Speaker 3: Well, to your point where we're starting with the very
Speaker 3: conservative ambition of one in our first year. If we
Speaker 3: can do if we can do just one, then then
Speaker 3: at least at least it's sort of you know, we'll
Speaker 3: get we'll get an all round experience of what it
Speaker 3: actually takes to get, you know, because we've done the theory,
Speaker 3: we've quite go on lined up, We've got the supply
Speaker 3: supply chain all sort of all sort of in place,
Speaker 3: everything budgeting, but we've got to actually do it now,
Speaker 3: and and and rather than just assume it's going to
Speaker 3: be a breeze, we've said, okay, we're going to give
Speaker 3: ourselves a year even just to get this relief out.
Speaker 3: So hopefully if people are seeing this and the and
Speaker 3: the kickstarter is live, you know, bear with us. I
Speaker 3: think we've put a date of March next year. I
Speaker 3: think that gives us enough time, hopefully to get all
Speaker 3: the extras film, get all the authoring, don't get it
Speaker 3: all manufactured. I think also it's a good test because
Speaker 3: it's all very well getting the getting the sort of
Speaker 3: fantastic response online, but it's only once people actually buy
Speaker 3: or pre order the stuff that you really know it's
Speaker 3: viable and that it has legs long term, and you know,
Speaker 3: fingers crossed it does. But yeah, we won't be scaling
Speaker 3: up massively in the short let's get one done. It'd
Speaker 3: be great if we could move to I don't know,
Speaker 3: three or four a year, if if this is viable,
Speaker 3: if if it generates enough income that we could get
Speaker 3: we could get some other collaborators with partners or staff
Speaker 3: on board, and then maybe you can scale up even more.
Speaker 3: I mean, there are literally thousands of films that we
Speaker 3: could potentially access. But it's definitely going to be a
Speaker 3: slow start. Established the label, established the brand, establish whether
Speaker 3: it's even viable, learn how to do it before we
Speaker 3: before we sort of ramp up massively, if at all,
Speaker 3: because it may be that detail out of the sort
Speaker 3: of commitments, we've got to keep it fairly boutique. But
Speaker 3: we've already got a slave of sort of other films.
Speaker 3: I mean, well, one thing that's been really amazing is
Speaker 3: filmmakers actually just reaching out. We haven't even got a
Speaker 3: label yet, and filmmakers aren't things like hey have you
Speaker 3: seen my film? And or you know, we'd love to,
Speaker 3: you know, get out because earlier point, you know, the
Speaker 3: filmmakers want their films accessible too, and often the archives
Speaker 3: that they deal with or the distribution deals that they
Speaker 3: have with they're just not interested in putting this stuff
Speaker 3: on on you know, they've got to deal with Netflix.
Speaker 3: It's out there, it's done, and they're not interested in
Speaker 3: the home video mark at all. But the filmmakers are
Speaker 3: because they want their film to have a life. They
Speaker 3: want their films to live on in some way and
Speaker 3: not and not just get deleted off a hard drive
Speaker 3: in ten years time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is a very sad point, but very very true.
Speaker 2: I mean to keep it in the in the sad
Speaker 2: moment for for just a couple of seconds. Is a
Speaker 2: lot of these films because they've never been served appropriately
Speaker 2: on home video like this, filmmakers are not going to
Speaker 2: be here much longer, and we need some people to
Speaker 2: capture some of these voices to get that context down
Speaker 2: for archiving more. I mean, yes, it is vastly important
Speaker 2: archive the film, but hearing somebody speak on the process
Speaker 2: and what led to the creation of that is a
Speaker 2: massively important part of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I just want to mention somebody here,
Speaker 1: which is the Film Heritage Foundation in India, which was
Speaker 1: set up a few years ago by Shavindra Dungunpur, who
Speaker 1: very much is at the forefront of film preservation in
Speaker 1: India right now. So I think they've got two films
Speaker 1: right now at Bologna. They'll send a retrobata which they're playing,
Speaker 1: and I think they've made it a mission of theirs
Speaker 1: whereby they restore at least two or three films a
Speaker 1: year now in either two K or four K.
Speaker 4: And done brilliantly.
Speaker 1: Because they are now set in the benchmark in terms
Speaker 1: of restoration. Working with Bologna, obviously you're going to get
Speaker 1: the best of possible restoration. I think what Shavindu is
Speaker 1: really kind of emphasizing and underlining is that all this
Speaker 1: this incredible history of Indian cinema, so many films out there,
Speaker 1: and it's mind boggling and bonkers to think that the
Speaker 1: citizen kenes, the kind of the you know, the gone
Speaker 1: with the wings of Indian cinema are just not available
Speaker 1: on the way in which they should be and appreciating.
Speaker 1: And I'm seeing in people's kind of homes and even
Speaker 1: in the cinemas as well. It just doesn't exist. And
Speaker 1: it's just crazy to think that we're in that situation still.
Speaker 1: So I think ultimately we want to kind of be
Speaker 1: able to get to that point where we can release
Speaker 1: these films which are accessible for people but using the
Speaker 1: best kind of archival kind of materials that are out there.
Speaker 1: And the Film Harrishon Foundation is doing example work in
Speaker 1: terms of making and restoring a lot of these films,
Speaker 1: and one of the things they're doing actually this week
Speaker 1: they're having a discussion on rest duration at Bologna Film
Speaker 1: Heritage Foundation and they're talking about Shortley's restoration, which they're
Speaker 1: doing right now, which is a long time coming probably,
Speaker 1: you know, still one of the arguably that the most
Speaker 1: famous kind of popular Indian film ever made. Can you
Speaker 1: watch it on proper kind of blu ray right now? No,
Speaker 1: you can't access it. And it's so so sad. But
Speaker 1: it is changing and it's it is taking its time,
Speaker 1: but it's happening, and it's great and exciting to see
Speaker 1: it that it's finally happening. And a lot of even
Speaker 1: the National Film Archive in India started to read the
Speaker 1: heart that they have to hold on and restore these
Speaker 1: films because they're going to lose so much of the
Speaker 1: history now. And I think we can play a really
Speaker 1: important part in kind of becoming a conduit in terms
Speaker 1: of getting those films to collectors, to people who can
Speaker 1: want to watch these and own these films, because Mother
Speaker 1: India deserves to be on the same shelf as Citizen
Speaker 1: K and you know, yeah the phone, you know, true
Speaker 1: for and God and everyone else. So I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's important in terms of film preservation. Is
Speaker 1: really kind of is starting to to kind of turn
Speaker 1: a corner in in India as well, which is great
Speaker 1: to see. I think that's going to be important for
Speaker 1: us as well in the future.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, is there anything I failed to ask about that
Speaker 2: you guys want to share before we call it a day.
Speaker 3: I suppose. I just want to add to what Omar
Speaker 3: said in terms of I think I think we sort
Speaker 3: of accidentally hit the right timing for this for this launch,
Speaker 3: in that the number of the two K four K
Speaker 3: restorations that have that have you know, just starting to
Speaker 3: appear out of India is quite remarkable, which potentially means,
Speaker 3: you know, if this, if this first release goes well,
Speaker 3: you know that there there will be a really good
Speaker 3: pipeline in terms of films that could be potentially available
Speaker 3: to us. And Shavendra at the Film Heritage Foundation has
Speaker 3: been being great in terms of connecting us to to
Speaker 3: rights holders and others even just on the screening sign
Speaker 3: their loans of discussions on the home video side the film.
Speaker 3: The the the n f DC as they were formerly
Speaker 3: called called now the part of the n f AI
Speaker 3: that's the National Film Archive of India have been you know,
Speaker 3: you know, amazing in terms of understanding what we're trying
Speaker 3: to do. Because it is a it is a completely
Speaker 3: different model to what they used to. So so getting
Speaker 3: them out of the line as the sort of first
Speaker 3: archive that we're working with. You know, they have hundreds
Speaker 3: thousands of titles, you know, and and some really some
Speaker 3: some some really famous ones, but some really quirky ones
Speaker 3: that they were telling Oh, I remember we were having
Speaker 3: discussion with them, and they're telling us how they digitized
Speaker 3: a whole load of like children's films in their archive,
Speaker 3: like educational films, And I'm really interested in all that
Speaker 3: sort of stuff. You know, this is stuff that that
Speaker 3: that people haven't even be aware exists alone, will be
Speaker 3: sort of asking for for for sort of screening rights
Speaker 3: or how video rights for so I'm keen that we
Speaker 3: that we do a bit of that as well. You know,
Speaker 3: maybe maybe there's a box set of children's films out
Speaker 3: there waiting to be released at some point.
Speaker 2: That'd be fun. I really wanted to end this on
Speaker 2: a sort of a hopeful note and for this again
Speaker 2: not really a genre, because this is just an area
Speaker 2: of the world that has not been served properly. Not
Speaker 2: a genre. What are you know, two or three films
Speaker 2: each that you could recommend that people seek out to
Speaker 2: get a sense of what you not necessarily hope to release,
Speaker 2: but just people to see. Hey, these are the type
Speaker 2: of films that are amazing that I could potentially be
Speaker 2: missing if something like this is not funded, if something
Speaker 2: like this is not supported, if something like this is
Speaker 2: not seen as important to so many of us that
Speaker 2: are in the film circles that we're in.
Speaker 3: Can I can I just start by saying one way
Speaker 3: would be, you know, maybe maybe check out our film creation.
Speaker 3: So my film club is called super Kino. That's s
Speaker 3: U p A k I n O. If you if
Speaker 3: you look at my website supercino dot com, you can
Speaker 3: see all the films are screen in the past. And
Speaker 3: amongst the sort of weird and wonderful films from around
Speaker 3: the world, there are there quite a few Indian films
Speaker 3: as well, so check those out. Films like jug That
Speaker 3: a Whole, which I put on a double bill with
Speaker 3: Scorsese's After Hours because they're both set in single night
Speaker 3: and have some very similar themes. So jog that always
Speaker 3: up there as a as a as a top film
Speaker 3: to seek out. But I'd also check out Omar's movie
Speaker 3: blog where he's got like tons of films that he's
Speaker 3: written about over the years, which is now a book.
Speaker 3: So check out the book as well. But if you
Speaker 3: just want to read it online, there's there's a great
Speaker 3: blog in terms of in terms of film that that
Speaker 3: that Omar has written about as well. There you go,
Speaker 3: there's the book.
Speaker 2: Is that is that still in print? Can everybody still
Speaker 2: purchase then?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just came out in February, So this this
Speaker 1: is a hard bat but it's an absolute extortion of price,
Speaker 1: so don't buy it. So the paper a bankruptcy.
Speaker 2: You're really bad at promoting, by the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the paperback is out next year in January,
Speaker 1: and it'll be like ten or twelve quids. I don't
Speaker 1: know how much that probably is more accessible. I think
Speaker 1: it'll be like, you know, ten or fifteen dollars in
Speaker 1: the US. So if you want to kind of a
Speaker 1: different canon of kind of Indian cinema, I do what
Speaker 1: I do in each chapter is our list of a
Speaker 1: cannon so of films that you need to go and
Speaker 1: seek out. And you know, parallel cinema films which put
Speaker 1: a completely different spin on your perspective of what kind
Speaker 1: of the linear kind of way in which Indian cinema
Speaker 1: is often kind of taught and kind of processed and
Speaker 1: delivered to us through kind of you know, film culture.
Speaker 1: So this is a kind of a different way of
Speaker 1: thinking and looking at kind of Indian cinema. I think
Speaker 1: it's kind of what we want to do with the
Speaker 1: label as well, really in the sense that I want
Speaker 1: to shake up things and make kind of audiences think about,
Speaker 1: you know, the non linear way of Indian cinema as well,
Speaker 1: because there's so many different branches and so many different
Speaker 1: you know, dimensions to it, and the regional kind of
Speaker 1: kind of stuff out there as well is using incredible
Speaker 1: as well. So yeah, I would say have a look
Speaker 1: at this. I could list loads of help, but I'm
Speaker 1: not going to, but just go to this and my
Speaker 1: blog as well, which is Movie Metal, which I've been
Speaker 1: writing on there for a number of years. You know,
Speaker 1: I have stopped off the past year because I'm writing
Speaker 1: a book on So I'm doing a book on Usky Ruddy,
Speaker 1: which is a money Calls kind of debut film which
Speaker 1: is going to be part of the BFL Film Classics range.
Speaker 4: Nice I've been working on that as well.
Speaker 1: Actually, Oski Rodi would be one I would strongly encourage
Speaker 1: and recommend for listeners and you know, to go on
Speaker 1: kind of seek and watch. It's really important film.
Speaker 2: Well, I would recommend everybody go support your kickstarter. I
Speaker 2: will be there day one to give I know it's
Speaker 2: something that is really easy to say, Hey, everybody can
Speaker 2: do this and not put your money behind it, but
Speaker 2: I absolutely will be. I think this is one of
Speaker 2: the most important things for physical media, for home video
Speaker 2: and really just for South Asian cinema for this entire year.
Speaker 2: So thank you guys.
Speaker 3: Hey, thanks so much for having us. And yeah, and
Speaker 3: I'll be checking out your other shows as well. So
Speaker 3: this has been I think. I think your library of
Speaker 3: of previous shows is like a really good grounding for
Speaker 3: anyone else who wants to start up the label as well.
Speaker 2: I'm quite proud of the people I've been able to
Speaker 2: speak to and to have you guys be in that
Speaker 2: catalog for me is immense. So thank you so much,
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you for listening to the Disconnected podcast.
Speaker 2: There's one big thing that you could do to help
Speaker 2: the show, and that is to leave a rating and
Speaker 2: review on the podcast service of your choice.
Speaker 5: Thank you me.
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