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Of endless possibilities
SUGANTHY KRISHNAMACHARI
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FILMMAKER Documentary is the ideal way to preserve an experience, especially relating to the arts, says Margaret Kavounas.
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There may be many versions of a lament or a song of celebration. You should try and get as many of them as possible. India is so rich in its diversity.
Photo: M.Vedhan.
Archiving precious moments: Margaret Kavounas.
When music touches our hearts, we often say, ‘Immortal’! A rather clichéd way of describing music. And come to think of it, not technically accurate. How can posterity relate to our description of the music as immortal? The power of
the adjective cannot be grasped by others, since experience cannot be transferred.
This is where filming of the performing arts comes in, because, as Margaret (Peggy) Kavounas puts it, it is hard to replicate an experience. Peggy is the treasurer of Third Wave Television, a non-profit organisation that has made several documentaries on women’s issues.
Linguistic expert
Peggy, who majored in history and also studied linguistics in Stanford, is listening on her iPod to Asha Bhosle singing for the Kronos Quartet, but willingly settles down for a conversation.
Talking about the films made by Third Wave Television, she mentions ‘Gun Control in Connecticut: Women Call the Shots,’ in which the narrator was Joanne Woodward, wife of Paul Newman.
Some of Third Wave Television’s films have won prestigious awards. But do documentaries enjoy popularity among viewers? Yes, they do. A lady who worked for the USIS, liked our film, ‘An American Revolution: Women Take Their Place’ so much, that she bought more than 180 tapes of the film, and sent one to each USIS centre in the world.
The statues of three women who were associated with the suffrage movement in the U.S. had been installed in the rotunda of the U.S. capitol, but were later removed and put in the basement. This film was about the movement and the struggle more recently to reinstall the statues. The Congress finally agreed to the re-installation, but said that the agitating women would have to provide the money required. The women raised $75,000 for the purpose. “The irony is, shortly after this, Congress sanctioned $75,000 to install the statue of Nixon’s VP Spiro Agnew, who resigned because of charges of financial irregularities!” Peggy observes wryly.
Peggy talks about her 20-minute film on Vietnamese water puppetry. American children between the ages of two and seven, who saw her film, loved the show.
In the U.S., every major university has a film department, and documentary is popular among students as a choice of study. Stanford University is even planning to expand its documentary film making programme.
What about funding? Sometimes funds come your way quite unexpectedly, as when we made the film, ‘Women Count: Smart About Money.’
The National Endowment for Financial Education liked this film on the financial problems of women and gave us $143,000 to make the film. One way to fund a documentary on the performing arts in India may be to approach the government, she says. The film could then be shown in Indian embassies.
Artistes are usually excellent mentors, generous with their time, observes Peggy. How a vidwan trains his students, how he helps them overcome their limitations would also be a good theme for a documentary. In this context, she mentions a film she particularly enjoyed — “Perlman in Shanghai,” directed by Oscar award winning director Alan Miller, which aired on PBS. It shows Grammy award winning violin soloist Perlman training Chinese instrumentalists under the age of 18.
Suppose you are filming, say, the folk songs of villagers in Tamil Nadu. There may be many versions of a lament or a song of celebration. You should try and get as many of the versions as possible. India is so rich in its diversity and heritage. The possibilities for making films on your performing arts are endless, she says.
Documentation of the performing arts is the recording of a nation’s cultural history, she points out. That is why filming of the performing arts becomes important, because it encapsulates the arts and presents them in a historical context for the benefit of posterity.
How to go about it…
In the lecture recently organised by the University Women’s Association and the Centre for Ethnomusicology, Peggy says, to make a good documentary, you don’t need an expensive camera.
There are prosumer cameras that cost only $1,000 with which you can make films of broadcast quality. Body microphones cost $10.
Get a tripod too, and you are all set. Age is no barrier for an enthusiast. She herself studied film making at the age of 59.
One could even find students from a film institute to do the filming. They would be happy to oblige.
For preservation
The next step is to archive your film. In fact it is important to preserve tickets, flyers, posters, too relating to the performing arts.
In Stanford, they have a fund called the Undergraduate Education Fund. Any undergraduate can submit a research proposal, and if the proposal finds approval, he/she gets a grant.
If that kind of a scheme were introduced in the universities in India, students who want to make films on the performing arts will immensely benefit.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
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