You are now listening to the Someone's Favorite Productions podcast Network.
Hello there, and welcome back to the disc connected here with Omar and Ranjeet, who are the founders behind a company that I sincerely hope everybody hears a lot more about for this year. That is the cloud Door. Gentlemen, thanks for making time for this.
Hey, thanks for having us.
Yeah, thank you for having us.
The first thing that we should do is define what the cloud Door is, and it is an upcoming boutique company that is releasing a kickstarter for everybody to donate to. Omar, can you share where the name of the cloud Door came from?
Yeah, so the name itself came from comes from a short money call film. It's kind of expired until film, which actually Rinji did a screening of the cloud Door at was it? Was it in Stuttgard was it? Or Frankfurt?
It was the it was the year before last. I did one in London at the Garden Cinema, which is a new cinema in Covent Garden, and you know we did we did one together in Frankfort as well.
Nice.
Yeah, So the the idea was I think we've always been big fans of kind of alternative Indian cinema, and money called is kind of like so important and critical too, kind of the experimental, avant guarde side of kind of of Indian cinema. So it's a very kind we felt it was a very kind of apt title as well, very catchy as well, and kind of fitted into kind of our kind of ethos and spirit or kind of what we want to do with the label is.
That we do.
We're we are interested in genre films at the same time, but we're also very much kind of focused on kind of independ independent of alternative, esoteric mar films that are out there which often don't get you know, a platform and get don't get seen by kind of film audiences and you know and collectors as well. So it kind of came from our kind of appreciation, understanding and love of kind of money goals kind of work.
Really, that's I mean, it's it's a noble mission. It's something that is vastly underserved across many of these boutique labels. Rogie, you guys are focusing on South Asian cinema, primarily Indian cinema. Obviously, there there's a very big hole missing in that market. But one one question I'd love to hear is why has that classically been so underserved or difficult to license for For many of these other companies.
It's it's really falling away as a market. I mean, growing up in the UK in the eighties, the actual South Asian communities and in fact even other immigrant communities. So I'm from the Midlands, you're from the North, and there's there's sort of you know, decades old South Asian immigrant communities and in those areas in the UK, but also the Chinese community in Liverpool, the Turkish community in Berlin and parts of Germany were at the forefront of
the VHS home video market in the eighties. They set up their own stores and as well as renting out the sort of the latest blockbusters, they also imported a lot of stuff from there from their home countries. So so I grew up you know, weekly visits, multiple weeklysits to the local VHS store renting a whole load of not only latest releases, but you know, old movies from the from the forties and fifties as well as the latest, sort of the latest US blockbuster that was available on
video as well. So I think there's always been. There's always been a market in terms of people wanted to
watch this stuff. What's really changed over the last few years is I've noticed whenever I visit India in the past, you know, even up until maybe about ten years ago, you could pick up really good quality like DVDs of your classic favorites and really cheaply and they were very well made, and they had English subtitles, and you know, there were decent copies, and that has pretty much disappeared,
I would say, in the last ten years. The only way you can get your hands on this is usually sort of bootleg copies from local grocery stores and mobile phone stores where it's sort of three films to a DVD, not even a DVD, like a VCD, like really low res sort of YouTube Brits. Because no one's interested in this stuff. It's all it's all available on streaming, you know, all the major streamers have sort of entered the South Ocean market now and often the stuff, particularly I think
during the pandemic went straight to straight to streaming effectively. However, you know, there is a I think, what surprise owned by myself, We just started teasing the idea of even doing this is there's a huge there's a huge sort of demand for this regardless. You know, I'd love to get a lot of these films on home video and watch them. I'd love to have all the extras. I'd love to have the lovely artwork. And I suppose why is it still underserved now? I think there's also a
sort of opacity. I would say it's sort of mysteriousness about how do you license this stuff and how you source this stuff that own One and I have sort of tried to solve in our various ways as curators, and so that's given us the network to be able to sort of crack that a little bit, crack that open, not just for ourselves, but for other curators, for venues,
for maybe other labels as well. So I think I think it's a combination of that sort of market completely changing over the last ten years, but also for those people who are interested just having no idea how you find these films and how you're licensed them.
Yeah, it's been really interesting to see people react to some of the major releases, especially from that part of the world, that have hit, like Mona Macabreau in the in the US that put out the Bollywood horror box set and seeing the people literally like fall in love with the cinema as they finally get to watch through the films. What has really made me excited about this is you both seem uniquely qualified to tackle this Omar.
What kind of backgrounds do you guys have that has led to the professional ability to be able to tackle something as grand as this.
Yeah, I think just to go back to what Rinji they're saying, I just kind of echoey sentiments about kind of I think what's happened in India is that the kind of the home video kind of market has collapsed.
There's kind of void ground. It's kind of like an abyss.
And a lot of films, I mean, Netflix, Amazon Prime, all these kind of streaming sites have an important role to play. But unfortunately, I think even though they do hoover up a lot of the independent kind of films and put them on their kind of platform, it can be sometimes difficult to even find those films if you
want to kind of watch them as well. So there's challenges there with kind of the algorithm, which had been talked about endlessly by many different kind of people, which I think is still the case but I think now, I think as curators, I think what we discovered is that it's it is difficult to find those films a license. But I think once you kind of get into that world and start speaking to people and banging on doors,
it is really kind of critical. But kind of going back to what you just said about kind of my background. So my background is very much similar to Kin and Jeets in terms of like film curation and programming. I initially started as a teacher, so I was I was teaching film media for fifteen years at six to one college, teaching kind of filmmaking, storyboarding, film analysis. So I did that fifteen years.
I left.
And then I went to University of Manchester did a PhD. So I got funded by the Arts Humanities Research Council to.
Do a PhD.
And my interest was very much in parallel cinema, Indian parallel cinema, so independent kind of film movement, the first one reading in India and South Asia, postcolonial one in the late sixties early seventies. So I kind of researched that. So I spent a bit of time in academia. I left that, I mean in a kind of a different role now doing something completely different to kind of film, but the whole kind of film kind of fixation and
obsession and passion was always in the background. It is something I was always kind of doing on a constant basis. So in twenty seventeen, I founded one of kind of North's first regular kind of seasons on independent kind of films, which is based at home in Manchester, which is one of the Northwest kind of like most important kind of cultural kind of spaces for showing independent films. So I found it a season called Not Just Bollywood. So we each year we've been trying to show a slate of
different kind of alternative independent films to audiences. Do q and as do other work around it introductions, so try to kind of broadened kind of audiences kind of ideas of what Indian cinema and what South Asian cinema is to them, because I think it's still looked at through the prism of kind of Bollywood and the way in which kind of film culture often kind of represents and prioritizes kind of the mainstream films is often at the expense of kind.
Of the you know, the.
The more interesting kind of films that often fall to the wayside and no one kind of really engages with.
So I think.
I've always been an avid collector myself in terms of Blu rays and DVDs as well and vhs. Remember the first VHS I bought was I think, I think with Batman and die Hard from.
The local.
Either it was Boots or wool Worst and remember, you know, it started very early, that kind of relationship with physical and I think it's for me, it's and I think for un Cheeth as well. It's been really really fundamental to kind of keeping a lot of these films alive and keeping them going because streaming is one thing, but it can't replicate what physical media does because it gives you the actual quality of the film. It gives you all those special features.
It's like vinyl.
You pick up a piece of vinyl, you pick up the album, you immerse yourself in that whole experience. You're reading the notes, that kind of you're listening to the tracks one by one, you're not skipping when you are onlike you know on Spotify and stuff. So I've always loved that kind of culture and the investment and the time that goes into producing all these Blu rays. So I'd always want to look at them and go, wow, this is it's incredible. Why isn't there something like this
for South Asian cinema. There should be because it's such a huge kind of you know, often it's often been a it still is a very kind of gap in the market, really so, and I always like would tweet about write about it, and Mi Gright would be why criter you and why you're releasing all these you know, Indian films, saying kind of like arrow, and I think
it was a Master of Cinema Eureka. There were moments where those boutique labels have flirted with the idea of kind of releasing Indian films, but they've often gone down the root of a strategic ray films, which is, you know, the classic kind of default position, just release a ray
film and will be okay. And I think when I spoke with remembers people with Nick Wrigley, who I think was involved with Masters of Cinema Eureka initially I think he still think he works an Indicator and powerhouse and stuff now and he I said to him, look, why you only released that one ray film, which was Abijahn and it was on DVD and said, come on, let's do some more. There's so much stuff out there you could release. And I remember the comments coming back with
that there's just not an appetite there. Audiences don't want to buy these films. But this was admittedly, I think ten years ago, so it was like a decade ago. But I think I think there is a significant audience out there who would want to purchase, you know, South Asian Indian films on Blu Ray have them on their shelf in the way in which you know, Criteria Arrow have kind of given them these releases. So yeah, I think i'd say I'm and I'd say we're pretty qualified to kind of do this project.
What about you, Renjie, what's your background? Like they got you here And.
I'd come into the film work pretty late in life, so I'm a businessman as my day job and that's what pays the bills. But actually, I think this is probably the first project where it sort of covers all the bases in terms of my experience because we're setting up a new business effectively, So I've got all that background. I know what to do. I know how to set up a limited company, I know how to get an account and all that sort of stuff. Done it before
plenty of times. But on the film side, it's something I got involved with it really as a supporter to begin with about sort of eight nine years ago, just attending all of the different dy film clubs and independent venues and film fests in London. There was a real sort of renaissance of that you know in a while back, which is continuing today thankfully, and just like giving them moral support and creating social media account and like promote
all of these great things that are happening. And as a sort of as a punter as an audience member, I also sort of picked up on you know, what went well and what didn't go well, and you know what I was looking for in a really good created event.
And as part of that, I you know, I got invited to do some myself as well, because just sort of talking to people involved in that world and supporting behind the scenes, I suppose sort of people picked up on the fact that I that I love cinema myself and all forms of it as well, and we're interested in my choices and in putting them on in venues and talking about them and doing all the sort of
extras as well. So I started out as a film creator screening Octopusy the Bond film under a railway arch in East London in like a real sort of hipster
area of like upcoming East London. And it was it was a proper hipster venue because by day it was a vinyl shop and they also had like a pop up restaurant and then during the evening that they'd clear away all the all the crates and there'd be there'd be a set of steps bricks steps, so people would just sit on and the screen would come down and they're just put the films and films in the evening. Unfortunately they lost their license, but it was while that
then you lasted it. It was quite a cool place and the guy who was like inviting guest curators there was there was a chap who used to run a sci fi theater in London which was a great little film club when it lasted. They used to do used to do a different sci fi film every month and some real like you know, cult films and rarities in their
in their program. But what they would also do is they would get an artist to do a special especially commission poster and postcard for it, and they would get a scientist related to the topic of the film to do a little talk and it was great, and yeah, shout out to the Graham at Sci Fi Theater wherever he is. And it was a great little film club. They started off in the back of a pub and then they and then they sort of branched out to actual cinemas and so he invited so, look, there's an
independent venue here. They're sort of pretty much open, so you're doing whatever you want. And I thought, okay, well, out of all of the things that are probably never going to get invited to do, I'm going to do something called turban Scene on Screen, where I did a whole monthly set of screenings about films where there was sort of notable leading or sort of side characters that
wore turbans and particularly sort of mable seeks. And particularly for the first three or four films films that resonated with me growing up, so Octopusy, The English Patient, and The Life Aquatic, the Wes Anderson film. So those are the first three films, and then as I sort of got into putting on the events, I did everything around it as well, so that I've managed to get Kabir Beeddy, the guy who plays the henchmen in octopusy to Skypitt
from India and actually introduce the film. And that was a coup from my very first screening and it sort of went on from that. You know, I had live music for the Wes Anderson film. I managed to find a British singer songwriter who knew Portuguese and who could sing the David Bowie songs in Portuguese like just like in the film, and we had a little concert for
thirty minutes before the screening with the English patient. I managed to find a British South Asian filmmaker had done a documentary about seeks who served in World War Two, and so we've got a little bit of education to go with the film, to say, actually, you know this is this is a real thing, this is you know,
this is a great sort of form of representation. So what started off as a sort of bit of fun on the side, so slowly as the screenings developed and I started doing midnight double bills, I started sort of branching out and all sorts of you know, all sorts of crazy films that I love to watch and share with other people. Is over the years, I sort of
somehow accidentally became an expert at it. So all the stuff that I thought was like super super difficult because I'm nobody who just doesn't know how to do this stuff apparently was super difficult for everyone. And just by doing it year after year, I've sort of somehow, somehow sort of cracked it. And then and and I try and share that with as many people as I can, because I think, I think the more people who are able to do this, the better for the film ecosystem.
So I get invited every year to talk to film creation students at the National Film Television School here in the UK, and I try to mentor as many sort of up and coming film creators as I can in terms of just linking them up with this is the contact you need if you if you need to license a film, and this archive or this is a contact for a venue if you if you're thinking of doing
your program there. Because I think the other aspects as to my background and why I love doing what I do is I think London compared to other European cities and certainly the big US cities, so like New York, LA and then Paris, Rome, Milan as Urich. It just doesn't have It doesn't have the amount of sort of repertory film going that you'd expect for the size of population. It has a lot, there's a lot going on, and there are some fantastic venues here, but you just look.
You just look at some of these other cities and you visit them and you think, this is the sort of if you scale it up to London, we're nowhere near what's happening in what's happening in New York comparis, and so I think, I think in that void of big cinemas or institutional film institutes and the like sort of doing this stuff, it's the DIY community. It's the it's the film club putting on a DVD in their local library or church hall. Are sort of filling that gap.
And I'm sort of glad to be part of that community.
Really, that is incredible. I mean, you've been curating supplements for releases for a long time. Basically it sounds like in a live fashion, which is immense. One thing that makes this whole you know, home video interesting and needed in twenty twenty five more than anything, I think, is
those contextual extras that you literally already doing. So who are some of the companies that have been inspiring you, guys that you're going to be trying to live up to some of these supplements when you release your films.
Well, if I can just say a shout out to some of the anonymous companies first, because as a film creator, if it wasn't for so For example, I know I screamed I screened like an old French black and white film. If it wasn't for the fact that a Korean distributor had put that in DVD, I wouldn't have been able to get a decent copy of it. So it's similar to I think I've got it near me, just give me a moment. I'm screening this film later in the year.
It's a British film called Our Mother's House with Dirt Bogart. Now, I've managed to license this from from major sort of licensing firm, but you can't get hold of it anywhere. So it's only because there's this archive collection DVD of it that I'm able to screen it at all. And I'm not I'm not sort of a format snob. If if I have to screen it on on some nineties DVD I will. It's better than not screening it at all.
Quite frankly, I don't want to be sort of tied down to just what's what's coming out the latest restoration circuit. Although I am thankful for all the sort of new restorations that are coming out, I don't want to just be sort of bound to that. So a shout out to all those nineties DVD producers and two thousands that that and their stuff is still circulating on eBay. And if it wasn't for them, quite a few of my
screenings just wouldn't have gone ahead. In fact, even the screening, even the screening of the cloud Door, which our label is named after. If it wasn't for the German producer who had created who would commission money called to make that unusual erotic short film for his compilation DVD called Erotic Tales Volume one that I think was published in the nineties of which I have a copy, You wouldn't have been able to even see that film because you
can't get it hold of it any other way. There is no there is no high definition transfer of that. So shout all the anonymous labels first, and then in terms of these days, I mean I'm a big fan of what Vinegar Syndrome is doing in the US. I mean, there's just if I could affought to import everything, I would, but I have a sort of pick and choose, I think out of their sort of sub labels or partner labels.
I really love what Canadian International Pictures are doing, and I love the I love the packaging of it as well. They have they pick really good artists, they have really good they have really good extras on there, and they are sort of genuinely films that no one else would otherwise release, so that they're you know, there may be limited editions, but I think those actual those actual artifacts will live on for decades as a way of curators being able to access that material in a good format
enough to potentially screen. You know, in the UK we have Radiance Films that was doing a cracking amount in terms of just getting things out there and making things available. Oh mile, hangover to you. You've you've you're a big collector. You're a much bigger collector than I am.
Yeah, no, I think you mentioned who do you just Radiance? Yeah?
I think I think the usual source of bets really is kind of like things labels like Criterion Collection Arrow. I think Second Side of doing some great stuff as well. I think in terms of where we're headed in terms of like South Asian Indian kind of cinema, I think Second Run has been really important in the work that they.
In the UK.
So Meley Modi who kind of founded and set Second Run and still going, and they still release a lot of really important Eastern European kind of films, but they've
also had a concerted effort. I think they've They've not been I think they've done brilliantly to release whatever they can in terms of the South Asian film, so I think a couple of films from a global Krishna and I think they've done also just recently one that I've kind of written the essay for the book that I've forgot, the film is Now You Issue Always has been released,
which is a money poor moneypuri film. And also most recently as well, they did the Governed and Arab Indian film The Tent, which has also been released by them. So I think Criterion Arrow, Second Run are really important. So a lot of those kind of labels, but I think those labels have been consistently brilliant in terms of their authoring of their kind of discs, in terms of
their booklets, artwork as well. I think those are the things we want to kind of aspire to and kind have been paying very very kind of close attention to as well. I think it's a growing, growing market though. I think every time I kind of look and go online,
I'm seeing a new kind of label emerging. I think a twenty four are putting out their own stuff now, one which is like a beautifully kind of package, and kind of the love and care and attention that kind of goes into all of this is really something that I think we want to kind of aspire to and hopefully we can.
The fact that you guys are listing details on your Kickstarter page that are transparent and things that matter to people that are buying these, like authoring by Fidelity in Motion, you can tell that you're immersed in this world. You know what you're doing. What were when you were setting out to make decisions on these what were some of the just really obvious this is absolutely what we have to have on every single release type of decisions.
So when we were really starting out, we knew nothing quite friendly, So so sort of the origin story would be. I think was your tweet you posted online basically saying, hey, you've what if I started a label foundation cinema and like you've got a huge response. Well, one of the responses was me like messaging you saying cut me in on this. I've been thinking about this for years. Let's let's do it. And but we literally knew nothing. I mean, we had contacts, we were you know, we we bought
home video. We were we were users, you know, we were we were customers. We we knew about the licensing angle from from screening this stuff. And I suppose we've got our film, not in terms of you know, we know which films potentially would resonate in terms of the ones that we would like to release, but we we literally knew nothing about like how do you actually create
a blu ray? Like what are the steps? And we had to pee, we had to sort of piece it together jigsaw piece by jigsaw piece over about it took us a year, didn't it omar? I'd say, you know, okay, you've got old you've got to author it. You've got to get the materials, you've got to get this, you've got to get that or get the packaging, the manufacturer is a different company. There might be a broker between you and a manufacturer, you know, with all of this stuff.
And you know, the people in our network were like really really helpful, and I think I think it's been probably down to that original point in terms of everyone wanted something to happen in the space, the South Asian space. So everyone has been really willing us to make this work. And because of that, they've been super generous with their with their contact books, with their advice, with their tips.
You know, either other labels, for example, or people in the world who are collectors, who tell us from a customer perspectively, what do you look for when you buy a when you buy a bouret, what will you actually what do you sort of care about in particular? And they tended to be the same things that we care about, So that's sort of okay, We're on the right track then. And I suppose you know, someone and myself have have
our sort of particular strengths. You know, Omar's great at the copy you know, he's written, he's written a book about parallel cinema. He can he can he can be an expert on all sorts of releases, and I suppose my background in terms of the event side, branding, packaging, commissioning artists. You know, I was able to go out to my network in terms of, you know, can you help us with the logo, can you help us with with you know, a custom slipcover and all that sort
of stuff. So I think between the two of us and our sort of contact books and the generosity of people we knew, we we sort of pieced it together bit by bit, and I suppose what do we care about and why does that come out on the Kickstarter? Is what we want to do and this is this is aligned with my programming as well, is we want to sort of break South Asian cinema out of a sort of ghetto. Basically, we don't want people to see it as it's this niche thing, right, It's it's just
a genre. It isn't if you if you look at it, it's it's it's a thousand genres. It's it's it's it's expansive, it's and we aspire as a label to do, you know, the latest release versus something from the nineteen forties, a mainstream national cinema to an obscure, experimental film, you know,
documentaries as well as fiction. We don't want to sort of, you know, tire ourselves to a particular subpart of South Asian cinema, and therefore we want, we want those picks to be to be published in a way that is seen as devoting the same sort of love, care and attention that those types of cinemas would receive if they were an Italian film, or a Japanese film or a Hollywood film. Therefore, it's not just the picking of the film, it's the way that we're presenting it. And therefore we
want the custom artwork. We want the slip cover, we want the scnavo case that sort of you know, has a full frame sort of artwork on it. We want the extras. We want to try and get cast and crew involved, because that if we were a customer and the film was available in that we would say wow. And we want we want the people to receive this to really love it.
That's a daring, fine mission. I'm all about that.
Yeah, sure, I was just going to go back to oteth if it's kind of like add some more kind of points. I think he makes a lot of really important points. But also it's important to stress that this is something we've just kind of been doing in between everything else. So we've got families, we've got kids, we've got day jobs, so we're trying to get this in this in like late at night or where we can a little bit of time work on the kind of
you know, bits on the label. So it's been tricky in that respect, and I think he's what Renjita said is is really important in terms of like the generosity of what kind of people can willing to say and help out and say, yeah, yeah, you know this is the you know, the person to speak to about this and you know, particular aspect of the label the next step. So people have been really kind of helpful and generous with their kind of time.
But yeah, so I.
Think it's been a learning curve for us as well. I think we've learned so much along the way in terms of from where it kind of starts and where it's kind of kind of end up as well.
Omar, why don't you tell us about this first film that people can look into on the Kickstarter and what your first release will be of.
In terms of the film. So the reason we've kind of chosen this film, we feel and it is is considered to be the most kind of one of the most important cult films in India. Really, so there's a kind of real kind of co audience out there for this film. I think it's a really important film in terms of So I've written a book on Indian Parallel Cinema which looks at the history of the movement from
the sixties up until the mid nineties. And the director Gomul Swarup, who's really important to the movement, who trained under Money Call as well worked with a collaborator a number of kind of films very much a bit of anomaly as a filmmaker, I would argue and am that would be there is a very kind of anomalous film as well. It's I was going to describe the plot,
but I can't. I was going to say, the story about this young boy called home growing up in a village in Rajasthan and he can do like weird and strange things like holding his breath for a you know, ridiculous amount of time. But it's kind of like it's very much a kind of a fever dream of a film. Really, it's kind of tied together with many different kind of surreal sequences, but there's nothing quite like it in Indian cinema.
When you do watch this film, it kind of gets under your skin and you start thinking about film as well, but you start thinking about kind of Indian culture, about kind of history, about politics, about science. It makes you
think and it kind of opens your mind. So it's kind of weirdly enough, it was kind of like the way in which it was marketed very much as a kind of like an LSD kind of trip Sack kind of experience, which it is actually depending on how you watch the film and what kind of moodier in as well.
So I think this is a and Donald's wroupe has been really generous with his time as well, and kind of like when we kind of approached him initially said we're gonna, you know, we want to release on Darby Dara as a kind of a you know, on Blu Ray. He he's been really really kind of instrumental and kind of making sure it does happen as well. So it's important to haven't got experimental cinema in India, but also
the history of parallel cinema. It's a really really critical kind of film in terms of cult kind of cinema in India as well. So I think those are some of the reasons why we feel it's it feels like an appropriate kind of first release. I know Renjet is a huge fan of the film himself. He can talk more about he has shown the film himself. I think a couple of times.
Yeah, I think. I think the film has only been screened three times in the UK that the first time I was in the audience, it was at the London Film Festival. It was a recent restoration that was doing the rounds of the sort of film festivals, but only
got screened the once as far as I know. And then I got hold of it, screened it myself, and I invited Omar along and we did a double bill of Roger Corman's The Trip with Come All Through on the Bid and we talked about that sort of the sort of circular connection of you know, the Roger Corman's film, sort of tapping into that sort of world of Leary and and sort of Tibetan philosophy and Indian philosophy and and sort of marrying that up with this sort of
chemical substances that can sort of achieve the shortcut to enlightenment. So so using Indian philosophy to sell drugs, and then and then this sort of restoration marketing where there was a great sort of pull line on the poster that this was the great Indian LSD trip. So using then a sort of an American film trope which was used to you know, in other films as well, like Kubrick two thousand and one. Was I think on the poster like you know this is you know, you're going on
a trip. You know, it's this sort of this this idea of experiencing a film in the cinema as a sort of mind expanding experience then being applied to this otherwise very unpacifiable film, because how do you sell this film otherwise doesn't fit into any genre or type, It doesn't conform to any sort of expectations. So I found that fascinating as a sort of connection on a double
bill basis. And then that the third time that I know that it was screen was one of the students that I met at the National Film Televisi school actually was doing a season and wanted to screen it. And he'd actually studied under Come all through in India before he came to London, and I connected them up with the with the archive to get it licensed, and actually, in fact, that was the first screening of the film
done under the terms of our new license. Because what's the other thing to talk about is we're not just a label. We want to be a film licensing service as well, because as curators, one of the biggest frustrations we have not just Withinian distributors, but I get it with French and Italian and other distributors as well, is some people just don't understand the economics of indie cinemas. You know, you want to screen a film and a
forty seat tiny little microcinema, you can't. You can't charge hundreds and hundreds of pounds or dollars because you're never going to make the money back. And they're used to only having their films screened at major festivals like a one off screening. I'll make a few thousand and then
that's it. It will never be seen again. Whereas we're very much interested in how do we get dozens of film clubs to screen this film to micro audiences, because that's how you that's how you keep the memory of a film alive, and that's how you keep sort of film Culture Alive is actually screening it and talking about
these films. So so our deal and hopefully all our feature deals will be not only do we want the license to put this out on home video, but we want a flat affordable rate that small cinemas and film clubs can then actually screen this as well. So and we've secured that with with Ondadad and we've had one screening under that under that license, say so that he was very pleased to get to get a decent rate.
That is a very important part of this one thing that has even just from the first time that you you both started talking about this online, it felt like the start of something special. It felt like something that this is people advocating for an entire movement, an entire generation of film that had not had not not free access, but like even the ability for people to truly discover And Yeah, the way you describe that is immense. I'm
so appreciative of that. And to tie it to one other thing, on your Kickstarter you use a very specific word that I immediately fell in love with and I want to hear what it means to you, because on your Kickstarter you list South Asian films and diaspark films, and that is I don't know, as a white male in the United States that is one of the most privileged people in the world and not knowing what you know, dealing with diaspores is not for me personally, but I
work in immigration and it means the world to me to hear somebody talk about this. So what does that word mean to your guys's mission?
For us, I think the focus is not just going to be on you know, film from South Asia, but we're very much interested in those filmmakers who active within the South Asian diaspora, not just here in the UK, but also in the US as well, because I think a lot of there a lot of those films the South Asian dasper films have also you know, rarely ever
get screened and not available to access as well. So I think we we kind of want to kind of keep it as broad as possible as well, to try and be able to kind of consider and think about films outside of just kind of you know, the canon, so to speak, as well, and start thinking about kind of the aspect kind of filmmakers here in the UK as well, And there's there is quite a lot actually here as well in terms of like what we can access from the different kind of archives that are available
as well. A lot of the stuff, some of it has been digitized and is available kind of kind of through the BFI as well. But then there's a lot of filmmakers who just once again people might not know about them, and collectives as well, people might not know about them as well, So it's another opportunity to think about and make their kind of work access as well, you know, accessible to kind of cinemas as well, and
too audiences. So there is a there is a broader kind of a cultural kind of aspect to what we're trying to do as well. And I think what Brinjeeth was saying about kind of making these films kind of accessible to kind of cinemas as well is fundamental really and kind of sits quite importantly alongside what we're trying to do with the label in terms of getting the physical kind of media out to kind of to you know,
to audiences as well. I think it is important because I find every year whenever I try to curate something, I come across so many kind of barriers when it comes to discussing and negotiating with cinemas because they just can't get the fees that's these distributors, a licensee kind of rights holders are asking for is just simply extortion and it just doesn't work and it's not practical in kind of the economics. That model that was there before
is not sustainable now. So it's very much the lower the fee the bear is really and I think that we're trying to do with with there, I think is going to be kind of like hopefully open the door and other people we're hoping will also take note, because I think a lot of Indian distributors based in India who've got offices around the world don't really understand the dynamics of kind of the way in which audience is
for work and also what cinemas are facing. Independent cinemas are facing, you know, so many cuts and so many kind of budget issues, and audience is kind of changing as well. So there's many different factors and dimensions to the way in which which you know, Indian distributors and by scenes holders kind of sometimes close their eyes to and just oblivious to. So I think our model, hopefully once it is kind of put into practice, will we're hoping kick open a door for kind of other people
to take note as well. So we're in this very much for kind of film audiences, and it kind of you know, I wasn't I'm going to say educating audiences, but kind of really kind of broadening kind of their understanding of kind of what Southeast South Asian cinema can be.
Really it's important.
So looking at the future, I know that a lot of people that have never started a label, which is most people don't necessarily grasp that you can't just start and put five films out a month. It's literally not a feasible thing unless you are inherently grotesquely wealthy. So what are what are the future plans for the cloud Door?
Well, to your point where we're starting with the very
conservative ambition of one in our first year. If we can do if we can do just one, then then at least at least it's sort of you know, we'll get we'll get an all round experience of what it actually takes to get, you know, because we've done the theory, we've quite go on lined up, We've got the supply supply chain all sort of all sort of in place, everything budgeting, but we've got to actually do it now, and and and rather than just assume it's going to
be a breeze, we've said, okay, we're going to give ourselves a year even just to get this relief out. So hopefully if people are seeing this and the and the kickstarter is live, you know, bear with us. I think we've put a date of March next year. I think that gives us enough time, hopefully to get all the extras film, get all the authoring, don't get it
all manufactured. I think also it's a good test because it's all very well getting the getting the sort of fantastic response online, but it's only once people actually buy or pre order the stuff that you really know it's viable and that it has legs long term, and you know, fingers crossed it does. But yeah, we won't be scaling
up massively in the short let's get one done. It'd be great if we could move to I don't know, three or four a year, if if this is viable, if if it generates enough income that we could get we could get some other collaborators with partners or staff on board, and then maybe you can scale up even more. I mean, there are literally thousands of films that we could potentially access. But it's definitely going to be a
slow start. Established the label, established the brand, establish whether it's even viable, learn how to do it before we before we sort of ramp up massively, if at all, because it may be that detail out of the sort of commitments, we've got to keep it fairly boutique. But we've already got a slave of sort of other films. I mean, well, one thing that's been really amazing is filmmakers actually just reaching out. We haven't even got a label yet, and filmmakers aren't things like hey have you
seen my film? And or you know, we'd love to, you know, get out because earlier point, you know, the filmmakers want their films accessible too, and often the archives that they deal with or the distribution deals that they have with they're just not interested in putting this stuff on on you know, they've got to deal with Netflix. It's out there, it's done, and they're not interested in the home video mark at all. But the filmmakers are
because they want their film to have a life. They want their films to live on in some way and not and not just get deleted off a hard drive in ten years time.
Yeah, that is a very sad point, but very very true. I mean to keep it in the in the sad moment for for just a couple of seconds. Is a lot of these films because they've never been served appropriately on home video like this, filmmakers are not going to be here much longer, and we need some people to capture some of these voices to get that context down
for archiving more. I mean, yes, it is vastly important archive the film, but hearing somebody speak on the process and what led to the creation of that is a massively important part of that.
Yeah, I think I just want to mention somebody here, which is the Film Heritage Foundation in India, which was set up a few years ago by Shavindra Dungunpur, who very much is at the forefront of film preservation in India right now. So I think they've got two films right now at Bologna. They'll send a retrobata which they're playing, and I think they've made it a mission of theirs whereby they restore at least two or three films a year now in either two K or four K.
And done brilliantly.
Because they are now set in the benchmark in terms of restoration. Working with Bologna, obviously you're going to get
the best of possible restoration. I think what Shavindu is really kind of emphasizing and underlining is that all this this incredible history of Indian cinema, so many films out there, and it's mind boggling and bonkers to think that the citizen kenes, the kind of the you know, the gone with the wings of Indian cinema are just not available on the way in which they should be and appreciating. And I'm seeing in people's kind of homes and even
in the cinemas as well. It just doesn't exist. And it's just crazy to think that we're in that situation still. So I think ultimately we want to kind of be able to get to that point where we can release these films which are accessible for people but using the best kind of archival kind of materials that are out there.
And the Film Harrishon Foundation is doing example work in terms of making and restoring a lot of these films, and one of the things they're doing actually this week they're having a discussion on rest duration at Bologna Film Heritage Foundation and they're talking about Shortley's restoration, which they're doing right now, which is a long time coming probably, you know, still one of the arguably that the most famous kind of popular Indian film ever made. Can you
watch it on proper kind of blu ray right now? No, you can't access it. And it's so so sad. But it is changing and it's it is taking its time, but it's happening, and it's great and exciting to see it that it's finally happening. And a lot of even the National Film Archive in India started to read the heart that they have to hold on and restore these films because they're going to lose so much of the
history now. And I think we can play a really important part in kind of becoming a conduit in terms of getting those films to collectors, to people who can want to watch these and own these films, because Mother India deserves to be on the same shelf as Citizen K and you know, yeah the phone, you know, true for and God and everyone else. So I think, yeah,
I think it's important in terms of film preservation. Is really kind of is starting to to kind of turn a corner in in India as well, which is great to see. I think that's going to be important for us as well in the future.
Absolutely, is there anything I failed to ask about that you guys want to share before we call it a day.
I suppose. I just want to add to what Omar said in terms of I think I think we sort of accidentally hit the right timing for this for this launch, in that the number of the two K four K restorations that have that have you know, just starting to appear out of India is quite remarkable, which potentially means, you know, if this, if this first release goes well, you know that there there will be a really good pipeline in terms of films that could be potentially available
to us. And Shavendra at the Film Heritage Foundation has been being great in terms of connecting us to to rights holders and others even just on the screening sign their loans of discussions on the home video side the film. The the the n f DC as they were formerly called called now the part of the n f AI that's the National Film Archive of India have been you know, you know, amazing in terms of understanding what we're trying to do. Because it is a it is a completely
different model to what they used to. So so getting them out of the line as the sort of first
archive that we're working with. You know, they have hundreds thousands of titles, you know, and and some really some some some really famous ones, but some really quirky ones that they were telling Oh, I remember we were having discussion with them, and they're telling us how they digitized a whole load of like children's films in their archive, like educational films, And I'm really interested in all that
sort of stuff. You know, this is stuff that that that people haven't even be aware exists alone, will be sort of asking for for for sort of screening rights or how video rights for so I'm keen that we that we do a bit of that as well. You know, maybe maybe there's a box set of children's films out there waiting to be released at some point.
That'd be fun. I really wanted to end this on a sort of a hopeful note and for this again not really a genre, because this is just an area of the world that has not been served properly. Not a genre. What are you know, two or three films each that you could recommend that people seek out to get a sense of what you not necessarily hope to release,
but just people to see. Hey, these are the type of films that are amazing that I could potentially be missing if something like this is not funded, if something like this is not supported, if something like this is not seen as important to so many of us that are in the film circles that we're in.
Can I can I just start by saying one way would be, you know, maybe maybe check out our film creation. So my film club is called super Kino. That's s U p A k I n O. If you if you look at my website supercino dot com, you can see all the films are screen in the past. And amongst the sort of weird and wonderful films from around the world, there are there quite a few Indian films
as well, so check those out. Films like jug That a Whole, which I put on a double bill with Scorsese's After Hours because they're both set in single night and have some very similar themes. So jog that always up there as a as a as a top film to seek out. But I'd also check out Omar's movie blog where he's got like tons of films that he's written about over the years, which is now a book.
So check out the book as well. But if you just want to read it online, there's there's a great blog in terms of in terms of film that that that Omar has written about as well. There you go, there's the book.
Is that is that still in print? Can everybody still purchase then?
Yeah, it just came out in February, So this this is a hard bat but it's an absolute extortion of price, so don't buy it. So the paper a bankruptcy.
You're really bad at promoting, by the way.
Yeah, so the paperback is out next year in January, and it'll be like ten or twelve quids. I don't know how much that probably is more accessible. I think it'll be like, you know, ten or fifteen dollars in the US. So if you want to kind of a different canon of kind of Indian cinema, I do what I do in each chapter is our list of a cannon so of films that you need to go and
seek out. And you know, parallel cinema films which put a completely different spin on your perspective of what kind of the linear kind of way in which Indian cinema is often kind of taught and kind of processed and delivered to us through kind of you know, film culture. So this is a kind of a different way of
thinking and looking at kind of Indian cinema. I think it's kind of what we want to do with the label as well, really in the sense that I want to shake up things and make kind of audiences think about, you know, the non linear way of Indian cinema as well, because there's so many different branches and so many different you know, dimensions to it, and the regional kind of kind of stuff out there as well is using incredible as well. So yeah, I would say have a look
at this. I could list loads of help, but I'm not going to, but just go to this and my blog as well, which is Movie Metal, which I've been writing on there for a number of years. You know, I have stopped off the past year because I'm writing a book on So I'm doing a book on Usky Ruddy, which is a money Calls kind of debut film which is going to be part of the BFL Film Classics range.
Nice I've been working on that as well.
Actually, Oski Rodi would be one I would strongly encourage and recommend for listeners and you know, to go on kind of seek and watch. It's really important film.
Well, I would recommend everybody go support your kickstarter. I will be there day one to give I know it's something that is really easy to say, Hey, everybody can do this and not put your money behind it, but I absolutely will be. I think this is one of the most important things for physical media, for home video and really just for South Asian cinema for this entire year. So thank you guys.
Hey, thanks so much for having us. And yeah, and I'll be checking out your other shows as well. So this has been I think. I think your library of of previous shows is like a really good grounding for anyone else who wants to start up the label as well.
I'm quite proud of the people I've been able to speak to and to have you guys be in that catalog for me is immense. So thank you so much, Thank you, Thank you for listening to the Disconnected podcast. There's one big thing that you could do to help the show, and that is to leave a rating and review on the podcast service of your choice.
Thank you me.
No, do you love movies?
So do I?
What's up?
Y'all.
It's KB and I Love Movies inviting you to listen to the Conversation, a film podcast where passion meets perspective and opinion from the old school to the new. I invite a guest on to discuss the movies that thrill us, challenge us, break our hearts, or even blow our minds. There's always new episodes dropping wherever you get your podcasts, so join the conversation. We don't just watch movies, we
love talking about them too. The Conversation with KB Loves Movies a part of Someone's Favorite Productions Podcast Network.
Thank you for listening.
To hear more shows from the Someone's Favorite Productions Podcast Network.
Please select the link in the description.