Multicultural anthology feature 'My Melbourne' kicks off under guidance of Indian directors
Production on anthology feature My Melbourne, produced by Mind Blowing Entertainment, is set to get underway this month in collaboration with high-profile Indian directors Kabir Khan, Onir, Rimas Das and Imtiaz Ali.
The film interweaves four stories from emerging writing and directing teams, exploring sexuality, gender, disability and race. Mitu Bhowmick Lange and Leanne Tonkes produce, with production support via VicScreen and Screenz Australia.
Each of the four shorts are inspired by true stories or lived experience and together are designed to create a portrait of life in multicultural Melbourne.
Khan, Onir, Das and Ali will mentor the teams and be in Melbourne for the shoot, with Onir arriving this week.
The mentee directors include Puneet Gulati, Samira Cox, Tammy Yang and William Duan, with writers Monique Nair, Nazifa Amiri, Cox, Shivangi Bhowmick and Gregory Francis.
The assistant director team includes Param Walia, Ron Kahlon, and Will Murphy, the camera team is Brad Francis and Rhys Ballis, and the production team Anmol Kachroo, Deepti Bhangde, Vedant Sawhney and Saharsha Pradhanang.
Each of the shorts will also be worked on by two students from Bus Stop Films, with the organisation also helping with casting for Into the Spotlight.
The hope is to turn My Melbourne into an ongoing initiative, with the film to premiere at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. Mind Blowing Films will then release it theatrically.
The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne runs a short film competition every year, for which most of the mentor directors have previously been judges. However, Lange, who is the festival's director, had observed that many of the emerging filmmakers struggled to find further life for their films, and so she wanted to create a larger vehicle for them.