Kick-starting a change from within
Even before he cast his wife Deepa Purohit in the lead role, Sanjit de Silva knew ‘Time After’ would be an intensely personal project.The actor, who was last spotted on the cast of the award winning Broadway production of War Horse, plans to return to his original love – film making. However, instead of relying on a studio to realise his dream, Sanjit made a pitch on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter, asking for the $15,000 he would need to make it happen. Close to 200 people rallied to the cause, and Sanjit is now gearing up for production.
Sanjit and wife Deepa Purohit who will star in his film
If you haven’t heard of the site, Kickstarter allows someone selling something to connect directly to their target audience – it might be an artist like Sanjit seeking to make a movie, but equally it could be a company with an exciting new videogame or an indie band hoping to release a new album. As incentive, contributors are offered exclusive merchandise in exchange – the first videogame DVDs hot off the press or front row tickets to the concert along with autographed memorabilia. The big catch is that the project only receives its money if they manage to raise the entire sum specified.
Depending on how much they pledged, Sanjit’s backers will receive everything from acknowledgment as Associate Producers in the credits to a day on the set, as well as signed scripts (in the colour ink of your choosing!), framed pictures, meet-and-greets with the cast and invites to the premiere in New York City. Sanjit should be pleased his concept has convinced donors to give generously. Describing his intention to write a script that “truly represented the diversity of people in my life,” Sanjit says they’ll begin filming in September.
Having cast Vivek Fernando, a Sri Lankan-American, in the lead opposite Deepa, Sanjit wanted to create a film where people of colour were the main characters in the story and not simply relegated to the background. He decided to place the action in a location he actually lives in, the most populous of New York City’s five boroughs – Brooklyn. While Deepa and Sanjit are already parents to a little boy, they found that seeing all these families with multiple children had them feeling like they should be considering adding to their family.
That the film’s themes are so personal only makes it more potent for Sanjit. “As an artist and especially living in an expensive city like New York City, it’s already a challenge just making a living in your chosen artistic field, but then you add the expense of a family and it seems impossible! The short film is a very personal story and my attempt to grapple with my own questions about what it means to balance those two extremely large life issues! But my wife and I have persevered and found a way to make it happen, but it took a village, specifically the support of our families and friends to make it possible and they continue to make it possible.” The question is, are they ready to do it all over again?
That dilemma led to conversations about family and the idea of what sacrifices that might entail in terms of one’s career. Sanjit will use the premise as the basis of his short film and then surround his South-Asian American couple with two other couples, one with two kids and another on the way and the second with no interest in kids. “Now, you have a ripe scenario to start exploring the complex and different sides of the issues,” he says.
Having written the film with his cast already in mind, Sanjit has lined up a great production team that will include Jon Reitzes as the project’s co-director and editor, Christopher Vernale as Director of Photography. (The latter plans to give ‘Time After’ a look inspired by French film ‘Rust and Bone’ starring Marion Cotillard and directed by Jacques Audiard.) Jeff Pagliano, who worked on Robert Zemeckis’ film ‘Contact’ will keep the budget balanced and Matt Schneider is to be the resident legal eagle.
Though most recently employed as an actor, Sanjit’s film credits include an internship at Spike Lee’s production company, 40Acres and a Mule where he read scripts and learnt about screenplay synopses and structure. Later he worked as a production assistant on Spike’s film ‘Summer of Sam’ and Milos Forman’s movie ‘Man on the Moon’ with Jim Carrey. (A Film Studies minor in college, his feature film won best picture at the student film festival.)
Grateful though he is to have a career as an actor, Sanjit feels writing and directing films could help him change the industry from within. “There are still a dearth of full and complicated roles for actors of colour in mainstream media and the only way to change that is to be part of a movement to create and produce those stories,” he says. “This short film is the first step among hundreds of steps I intend to take to make more stories possible.”
comments powered by Disqus