The Real Thing

by Marissa Mireles-Hinds (United Kingdom (Great Britain))

Making a local connection India

I was on my way to work when I got a call about a project on what would end up being one of the coldest (and up until now, last) hospitality shifts of my life. It was a rainy, muddy football match full of drunken revellers and it was me and three others who were serving the beer. I had been determined not to work as a bartender again but due to the unreliable nature of freelancing at the time I had ended up back at it. I remember standing in the bitter cold, wanting to just move back home to the US. Ten minutes later I was hyperventilating with excitement. I always wanted to travel to India but it had always been just a dream. India was something I only experienced second hand through music or films like the Darjeeling Limited. I knew what I had seen only scratched the surface and when I saw this opportunity I knew I wanted to drop everything and engage with it. I decided I would fully immerse myself in the living culture of India, learning everything I could, researching authentic, ambitious talent and supporting young people to come along with me and help me document the process. In the end, it is exactly what I got to do and more. When I got this assignment, I had just finished a three-month creative residency with Livity in London and I was in a place where I needed a project like this for my mental well being and my career. I had never been a proper Producer before but Livity trusted me enough to give me a budget of £20,000 to create several videos and two workshops in film making to young communities in New Delhi and Bangalore. I repeat. I have never been to India and knew no one out there. Basically, Instagram and Soundcloud ended up being my best friends. The breakdown of the project was this, film at least five videos of Indian dancers for Street Player, source House music from Indian producers, cast dancers based in India to be featured in the videos, hire at least two production assistants, handle visas, accommodation, travel and immunisations, curate two workshops for young people in Bangalore and New Delhi, facilitate the workshops and handle all the logistics a producer, writer and camera operator would (among many other bits that came along the way). Our experience was lively, warm, hospitable, supportive. For me, a woman of colour from the US, it was amazing to see the diversity of India and of the dance scene there. Seeing how similar the art scene was to that of London and LA, to meet so many cool people who were filmmakers like me and had such amazing work in their portfolio. There is a such a vast group in India encompassing many creatives, especially musicians, dancers and filmmakers who all had great experience, vision and execution of their creative projects but had not had the chance to travel outside of India due to economic inability. It was an honour to be able to collaborate with them. Badri from Let’sGathr and Yolk Studios in Bangalore, decided from a chance meeting to support us in facilitating a film making workshop with only two days notice and it was our best experience the entire time. He invited me and my colleague to his house for tea and food and told us about Bangalore and the art scene there. I remember the Spanish style atrium, the mint tea and birds singing to be some of the most beautiful experiences of the senses I have ever had. From my trip, I came away with this: India is majestic, culturally rich, diverse, spiritual, open, enticing, loud, vibrant, full of many languages and religions and has a mystical sacredness to every element of it, even the cows disrupting traffic was endearing to me. I met so many creatives that I hope to work with in the future and enjoyed days that felt so long and wondrous that I felt they were out of a Wes Anderson film but of course, it was a thousand times better because there is nothing better than the real thing.