I\nstarted in Grade 5, making a documentary on the migration of Jazz from the South to New York City. I won\nsecond place in New York City and went onto represent Flushing, Queens at the\nstate championship in Rochester, New York. From there, there was no looking\nback. Since that time, I have made a sixteen episode docu-series on historical\nSikh shrines in India. I also shot two separate short films last year, one of\nwhich, A Bloody Mess, <\/em> has been\nselected to feature at various film festivals. I hope to complete the edit of\nmy second short film, Still. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nfilm was your directorial debut?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My\nlive-action directorial debut is A Bloody Mess, <\/em>which is also my most\nrecent film. A Bloody Mess <\/em>is a story about a teenage girl named Varsha,\nwho struggles to open up a dialogue on menstruation within her traditional\nSouth Asian family as she is constantly stopped from participating in everyday\nactivities whenever she is on her period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How\ndid you go about casting for the film? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Casting\nfor the film was a challenging task. As a South Asian Canadian, it is\nchallenging to find actors to portray characters who strike the right balance\nbetween maintaining a Canadian identity and traditional South Asian values. We\nactually cast a non-South Asian actor for the lead role in A Bloody Mess <\/em>and\ndid a lot of workshops to explain the familial and traditional context within\nwhich restrictions are imposed on the female who is menstruating. Equally\ndifficult was casting the other two main characters, Aarti and Sanjay, her\nmother and father respectively, as we wanted them to have a certain demeanour\nwithout being stereotypical. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nwas the most important lesson you had to learn that has had a positive effect\non your film? How did that lesson happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nmost important lesson I had to learn was to realize that there are times when,\nfor the sake of ensuring your film stays on track, you have to edit certain\nscenes and be flexible in letting go of certain shots. Otherwise, you can end\nup with a very lengthy short film which contains everything you love, but may\nnot necessarily be what the audience wants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nlesson came when I made certain cuts to the film, showed a selected number of\ncrew members, and received feedback. I then sat down with other crew members\nand realized that editing would be a long process to ensure the film was crisp\nand got the point across.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tell\nus a bit about the other films you\u2019ve made and your other projects?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nsixteen-episode docu-series, Darshan Dekh Jeeva, <\/em>was shot over the\ncourse of three weeks in the monsoon season in India. We visited over seventy\nSikh shrines over the course of twenty days, travelling through various states\nin 35 degrees (Celsius) weather. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Still,\n<\/em>which\nis currently going through the editing process, is a short film on stillbirth.\nThe film was shot in one day, in two different locations, and required four set\nchanges. The entire film was a testament to the importance of an efficient film\ncrew and really emphasized the importance of blocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nrole have film festivals played in your life so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nhave received a great response from certain film festivals, who have selected A\nBloody Mess<\/em> for screening. We are now an official Remi Award winner at the\n53rd Annual WorldFest – Houston International Film Festival. Of course, with\nthe current health climate, it has been difficult to travel with the film, but\nwe hope that as the year goes on, the current world health crisis is tamed, and\nwe can travel with the film. We hope we can engage in dialogue and increase\nawareness surrounding menstruation and normalize this conversation in our\nhouseholds so we can let go of the myths and stereotypes attached to periods in\ncertain communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is\nit harder to get started or to keep going? What was the particular thing that\nyou had to conquer to do either?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Initially,\nit is very challenging to get started, but that is a very subjective opinion.\nWith two young daughters by my side, it was difficult to actually sit down and\nfinalize scripts and get a crew together, cast for the films, and work on\npre-production. However, with a fantastic crew, I was able to really get the\ntrain going once I had my pre-production team motivating me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I had to conquer my own insecurities that came with balancing my own editorial projects, motherhood, and being a part of a national television station. Carving out the time was the hardest, and making sure I was responding to what I wanted as a filmmaker, as opposed to doing what may be trendy, was all a part of the thought process I had to overcome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How\nhas your style evolved?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\nhave realized that I have become a lot more adaptable to new ideas and changing\naround major scenes. I have become more flexible as a filmmaker. However, at my\ncore, my vision for certain shots remains the same, but I love to work closely\nwith my Director of Photography. I find collaboration on a set is the best way\nto put together a true team project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nhas been your personal key to success?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There\nare two, from my perspective. The first is the passion I have to tell stories I\nbelieve are important for my community and society at large. The second is the\nteam of fantastic women I have supporting each other in Fly Away Films Inc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nare you thinking about doing next?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\nam currently working on a feature film script, which will explore the journey\nof a female who has lost herself in her current life situation, and does not\nrealize that she lost her identity and dreams somewhere in the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Where\ndoes your studio want to go from here?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Fly\nAway Films Inc. hopes to bring films which open up a dialogue in the South\nAsian community and the world community at large to counter prejudices,\nstereotypes, and myths. We hope to shed light on current issues and lend our\nsupport to projects to further social awareness at large.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Exclusive Interview with Asis Sethi – Filmaker How long have you been making films and videos? I started in Grade 5, making a documentary on the migration of Jazz from the South to New York City. I won second place in New York City and went onto represent Flushing, Queens at the state championship in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19254,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8623\/revisions\/19254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nyglamour.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/unnamed-2-754x1024.jpg\")