Director,
Producer & Screenwriter
A short career in script-writing for children's
films and editing, producing, and directing television
specials such as:
* 'Danger Bay, 'Inside Stories' and 'The Young Indiana
Jones Chronicles'
* one-hour television special, Travelling Light
* produced and co-directed the television film Martha,
Ruth & Edie
* Her debut film feature Sam And Me earned an honourable
mention for the Golden Camera Award
*Exploration of lesbianism is virtually unheard of
within Indian cinema, and because of this, Fire continues
to draw venom and praise
- The first was Fire, a story of two middle-class
women drawn together in search of the warmth that
their loveless marriages lacked. The onscreen
lesbian relationship between the women angered
many in India. Extreme protesters went as far
as burning the cinema that first screened Fire
to the ground, and Deepa Mehta was shunned by
her country of birth for showing the world what
was considered bad images of India.
- The second film, Earth, is a love story
encompassing conflicting religions and politics
between India and Pakistan.
- Finally, Water, is a film about Indian
widows in the 1930s. In the past and present,
many women whose husbands have died are forced
to enter "widow houses." Labeled as
worthless without a husband to measure themselves
by, they struggle to survive by begging and often
turn to prostitution. It happened in the ‘30s
and is still happening today. With this information
in mind, I believed working as a clapper loader
on a film to be directed by a woman of such courage
would be an interesting experience.
