Her most recent venture, Silent Voices (2015), was produced by Film Division of India and documents the lives of the women in her family who have unrequited dreams and whose lives revolve around familial responsibilities and burdens of motherhood. Chakraborty explores the complexities and nuances of middle class India. Marriage, of course, certainly plays a salient role in devising the roles for the women in the family. Though a short film, the film is riveting and showcases that even though economically, India has entered the 21st century, there is much work that needs to be done to underline women's issues that continue to remain unresolved. The documentary was recently shown at 2015 Hot Docs Festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Here is the trailer for the film:
Nidhi Shrivastava: What was your inspiration to become a filmmaker?
Pritha Chakraborty: It's actually been a very strange journey. I was born and brought up in a very small town where film-making was never considered to be a career option especially when you are a girl. But I have supportive parents who always thought I should be the master of my destiny. But honestly it was never a conscious choice I made, it's more of an organic metamorphosis I had over the years through exploring the power of this medium. I could join anything like Mass Communication in St. Xaviers college Kolkata just to run away from Mathematics, but as days went by I started loving this path. I enjoyed the editing part most. I believe it's my internal urge to tell a story which inspired me to join the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Film Editing specialization. The more I liked the process of editing, more fiction/non-fiction I edited, more confidence I got to be able to tell a story. Then I decided that I should also tell a story of mine and hence the birth of "Silent Voices".
P.C: Silent Voices also developed on it's own. I always believed that film is such a transparent medium, if you aren't honest you can't get away with it. So when I thought of making one I asked myself what is that one thing which makes me question, angry, tells me I need to talk about this and I realized that it was the concept of "Silent Voices". I have written many drafts in different formats as I was skeptical telling this through my near and dear ones. I started shooting with lot of prohibition. I started observing my very closed ones through lens and it started taking shape of it's own. It was in the edit table the final draft is written which was independent of any draft I wrote so far.
P.C: To be very honest, I'm quite lucky to get commissioned by a prestigious body like Films Division India in the very first attempt. But the challenge was not external as much as internal. As this film was a personal one, when I started shooting I thought it would be easier as I have enormous access to my subjects. But gradually it became tougher as I was in inner-conflict being a daughter/sister and being a filmmaker. So the challenge was bringing out the truth with dignity and honesty.
P.C: Currently I'm working on two projects, one will be a shorter one where a brilliant women photographer find herself with a disease called alopecia, where she has lost all her hairs. So it's her tale how being in a society where women's being is measured by lot of external factors. How a brave girl like her is dealing with the same being inside the system. Also working on a feature which deals with the concept of "Arranged Marriage in India". Again what are the parameters to be met before groom's family selects the prospective bride. I have a very interesting character who is still looking for a bride at the age of fifty. The film will be unfold with his journey to find out a suitable bride.
N.S: When you chose a creative field, did your family support your career aspirations?
P.C: I said in I'm very fortunate that my immediate family has always been supportive of my decisions. My father always said that even if I stumble at some point, I will always know where did I go wrong and rise again. It's also true that at times they were comprehensive but they believed in my vision.
N.S: What are your favorite films?
P.C: It's very difficult to answer, I'm telling the first five names coming in my mind. In fiction, Mirror by Tarkovsky, Turtle can fly by Bahman Ghobadi, , Climate by Ceylan, Where is my friend's home by Kiarostami, About Elly by Asghar Farhadi, in documentary Gleaners and I by Agnes Verda, Position among the stars Trilogy by Leonard Retel Helmrich, Waltz with Bashir by Ari Folman, Herzog's films.
N.S: Tell me more about your experience as film editor?
P.C: Editing is the process which has always excited me. I found documentary editing is much more challenging than fiction though I have edited more of fictions including two feature films. Because in fictions I edited the choices/options were limited to experiment and most of it pre-structured. But in case of documentary you shape what you want to say by putting together piece by piece which can be anywhere in the footage. Once you are successful in doing that nothing can be more satisfactory than that. I had a challenging time while editing Silent Voices because bringing the objectivity of an editor in the project which you have directed is toughest.
N.S: What re the issues that inspire you to make the film?
P.C: I made Silent Voices because I have seen how the lives of women around me has always been measured with some predetermined perception of how they should be. Mostly we are born and brought-up with some arbitrary measurement imposed by society and these notions are so popularly accepted that it's the only reality. I would say this film is not a women-right film but a human-right one, because when you deny some one's basic right for education it can't be something to do with women only it's the defeat of that society.
Pritha (right) and Zana (left) at 2015 Hot Docs Film Festival
N.S: As a filmmaker, what do you think about women's issues in India?
P.C: In a way I belong to an interesting time. Me being a part of the same society, coming out and telling my story, this itself is proof of that. But saying so I'm also alarmed as you see in the scene where my sister's 3 years old boy says cooking is women's job not for boys. I pray that when this child grows up to be a 'Man' he can look at it from a objective point of view, only then he can question. Because if you can't come out of the system this cycle will never end. Till then Women Empowerment will remain just as an issue in this country.
N.S: Will you want to make a commercial feature film in the future?
P.C: Yes, I would like to make a fiction film someday too. If there is any story which demands the format of fiction, I would definitely make one.
Feature Image and all Images courtsey of Pritha Chakraborty
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