Mumbai Madness continues . . .

Hello. I'm back in Perth.

The 9th Mumbai International Film Festival 2006 is very over, but it will return in 2008 (they hold it bi-annually) and Bombay still exists in my head. A Stone Throw didn't win anything, but will be premiered here in Fremantle, this Friday 24th at the FTI's Fremantle Outdoor Film Festival. 7.30pm screening followed by Little Fish and 6.30pm for crew drinks.

So why is this BLOG entry entitled, Mumbai Madness?

Mumbai (Bombay) Madness:

After getting off the plane, I developed an annoying cough. My girl told me I smelt like human faeces and refused to kiss me until I showered and bathed for at least 2 days.

When I finally got back to my (home office) desk, there was a pile of work waiting for me.

1. Hours and hours of tutoring Usability and Web I.T. at Curtin University
   
2. Making 2 x short films with tweenies and teenagers at The Filmbites Film School
3. Several websites to do (at least 3) and
   
4. A whole host of film-related projects that I'm not at liberty to talk about right now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :| . . . . okay, maybe later.
   

Perhaps getting off a plane from an exotic, faraway country is doing it to me - or maybe it's the unknown, bird-flu like cough that I have developed . . . But I feel different.

Re-energized.

Lighter.

More powerful . . .

. . . and generally more serious and more committed to my work than I've ever felt before.

Now that the party is over, I think it is obvious. I have stuff to say.

Aside: I've been told to read Shantaram- the story based on the life of Gregory David Roberts - Sydney's gentleman bank robber who escapes over the front wall of Victoria's maximum security prison and then travels on a false passport out of New Zealand to Mumbai - where he lives with the poor people in a shanty town and becomes the community doctor, counterfeiter, smuggler and gunrunner! Did Greg catch the madness, too.

I think I've caught a creative sort of madness. I can feel a film (or two) coming on. Beware the Stingray perhaps?

Hallie (the girl who runs Filmbites - my regular Saturday teaching job) has edited a short film I shot (no script) with a bunch of tweenies just days before I went away and it's fantastic! . . . I reckon. I'm about to ask her to put another 50 hours editing into it. We have to clear music etc. Redo credits . . . All shot on a single chip camera with the letterbox function on (thereby reducing image quality). Camera sound, for God's sake! With wind-buffetting. Real off-the-hip. The acting is incredible. We're going to submit it to the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals. Plus St. Kilda. See if they take it. It's that good.

I reckon.

But that's all that matters, filmmakers. Right? You have to like the stuff you do. Who cares if it doesn't pick up awards? That part of the process is almost random - and if it's not - it usually means the film is a 3 act joke film - not necessarily an indicator of feature-style filmmaking (a whole different kettle of fish). Juries with mandates and opinions and allegiances and friends make award decisions. An award might fast-track you to being considered for a feature - as does a stint at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) but the film remains the same.

If you like it, you've succeeded! Surely!

My madness has recently been fuelled by two long macchiatos with sugar and a bowl of fruit salad - so bear with me.

Maybe travel does broaden the mind. My mind feels very broad right now and I have all this energy which I want to put into my work. Better cash in on it. Such waves rarely come by.

Maybe the great Shiva has entered my soul? Or Kali? Or is it Mumbai's very own Ganesh?

All my work.

1. Websites
2. Filmmaking
3. Writing
4. Teaching
5. Everything

It's all about to explode. When it does, I'll let you know how it goes.

But I feel . . . . . . VERY . . . . . . light!

It's . . . as Milan Kundera once uttered - albeit very self-consciously . . . . . . . unbearable.