Guest Post: The Hustle to Make the First Film by Leena Pendharkar

Note: I get lots of email from people who have scripts and films they want me to look at.  While I can’t watch or read all requests, I believe it is vital that we get as many women’s voices heard so they can get the exposure needed to continue of their filmmaking journey.  Women & Hollywood will try and feature these new voices on a regular basis.

All of the buzz around Kathryn Bigelow as best director is amazing—sure, she’s a woman, but more importantly, she made an incredible film, and had the guts to stick it out in a business that eats people alive and shatters dreams…

Yes, it’s been quite the long and arduous journey getting my first feature made.

It all began over six years ago, with a script called Raspberry Magic, a coming-of-age story about a young girl who believes that she can mend her broken family by proving to her dad that she can win the science fair.

Her project explores whether it’s nature or nurture that can make raspberries grow, something she measures through touch therapy.  I was inspired to write this story to explore a young girls’ relationship to nature and how it helps her realize that she can’t solve every problem through quantifiable means.

I went through many, many drafts of this script and even work-shopped it at a couple of writer’s conferences.  While I had written several screenplays before, Raspberry Magic was one I just kept working and working on over a period of many years.  I got a lot of positive feedback on it, and tried for years to meet that perfect person who would want to help me bring it to the screen…

But ultimately, no one wanted to make a movie about a young Indian girl, science, raspberries or the likes…Until 2006, when I met Megha Kadakia, an aspiring producer who had raised some financing for a couple of other indie films and was looking to do an low budget indie film.

She liked the Raspberry Magic script, and I liked her intensity, but we went into it with caution.  Neither of us had made a feature before, even though we had both worked in the industry and made films.  But we were a great match with her business acumen and my production/creative experience.

So, we decided to make a movie.  From the beginning, it wasn’t very easy–we both had full time jobs, and we were often tired, stressed and unsure of whether any of this would pan out.  But we met nights and weekends and talked on the phone at odd hours writing our business plan, putting together our presentation materials, and really thinking through the vision of the movie.

We set up our LLC and investor agreements, then went out to hundreds of people for financing—friends, friends of friends, family, business people, investor round tables, anyone and everyone who would listen, with our vision.  We got hundred’s of “no’s”—making a movie was risky, Megha and I had no track record, would we even be able to follow through…

But we kept at it.  With every no, we would knock on new doors, continually finding new contacts, new people to talk to.  And every now and then, we would find someone who believed in us, wanted to give us a chance.

Slowly but surely, we started raising a small budget.

Still, it was very slow going, and over two years into pounding the pavement day in and day out, we weren’t reaching our target goal—we didn’t have enough money to make the movie.  We often wondered if our attempts were pointless, if we should give up, if all of this hard work was really worth anything at all…  Then, on top of everything else, during the summer of 2008, the economy started collapsing, and we really weren’t sure if we could go on….

Megha and I had to make some very tough choices—move forward or postpone?  We decided that it was now or never.  So, we set a date:  December of 2008, no matter what.  That fall, we proceeded as if we did have all of our financing–retaining a casting director, hiring a line producer, booking locations up in Oakland, CA, and basically pretending as if we had everything.

The crazy thing was, as we began making the production real, it actually DID become a reality.  A couple more financiers signed on, and suddenly, we were up in the Bay, shooting.  Our production was grueling with so many child actors, scenes with extras, a rainstorm, and such a tiny budget with so shooting few days…  But somehow, we made it through.

With post-production, we were lucky enough to be able to put together a strong trailer and raise the rest of the money we needed.  Now, we are playing on the festival circuit, starting with Cinequest, San Francisco International Asian American Asian, Sedona, and Portland Women’s Film Festivals.  At the same time, we are negotiating a deal with a top sales agent for distribution through primarily VOD and digital means and a limited theater run.

Having a completed movie, and being a female director-producer team, I’d say that no matter who you are, getting a movie is tough.  Personally, I’d rather not be known as a “female director” but as a director.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not thrilled for Kathryn Bigelow, especially as I prepare to give birth the next couple of weeks and make my foray into a new chapter—being a mom.

I’ve been reflecting on all of this much, and all I can say is, the only way to break past barriers of any kind is to forge ahead and keep doing what you do…  So, I’m ready for the next film.  Any takers?

__________________________________________________________

Leena Pendharkar (leena@raspberrymagic.com) is a writer and director whose short films have won numerous awards and aired on television.  She’s covered a range of subjects from interracial dating to water rights issues in India both in fictional and non-fictional works.  She earned her master’s degree in documentary production from UC-Berkeley, and presently has several new projects in the works.  Leena teaches filmmaking/writing at Loyola Marymount University and Otis College of Art and Design.

Tagged as: Kathryn Bigelow, Leena Pendharkar, Megha Kadakia, Raspberry Magic