LA Philharmonic chief Deborah Borda will depart to head the NY philharmonic. She leaves behind a flourishing institution, a happy orchestra, and a charismatic artistic director. Filmmaker Marina Zenovich tries to uncover who actually owns California's water supply with her documentary, "Water & Power: A California Heist." And "The Lunchbox" filmmaker Ritesh Batra makes his first English Language feature "The Sense of an Ending."
Marina Zenovich tackles the California water crisis in her new doc
Who owns California's water? It's a simple question with no easy answer.
Roman Polanski tried to answer that in his 1974 film “Chinatown.” Now, documentary filmmaker Marina Zenovich is trying to do the same with her movie “Water and Power: A California Heist.”
She asks farmers, politicians and journalists why agricultural corporations can have so much access to clean water when some Californians are forced to use bottled water even to bathe — even as they live just feet from the state’s aqueduct.
The Frame’s John Horn spoke with Marina Zenovich about what inspired her to make the documentary, and how her film has become more urgent in the current political climate.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
On how documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney inspired "Water & Power":
Alex Gibney came to me with the idea for this project. He knew that I was a Californian. I'm from the Central Valley. My dad was a politician in the California State Legislature and he knew that I would be interested in this.
The more I dug into the [California water crisis] I realized that this was "Chinatown" [as a] documentary. The water problem is something that everyone is aware of, but I don't think they pay attention to it until it affects them.
The film is an exposé of what is happening with the privatization of water in California. There's so much happening that we couldn't include everything in the film.
On how her film has become more topical in the current political climate
Given what's happened with the Presidential election, it has made this subject that much more urgent. The people have spoken. They have elected Donald Trump and we now need to band together, those of us who believe and see that there is climate change. That it is directly affecting our precious resources. We need to band together and see what we can do to fight government, fight corporations, to have safe water to drink.
On the type of films that interest her
I like to make films about scandals, whether it's something that's happened in someone's life, something that's happening in the world. A good story is a good story. As the world is changing not for the best, and as a parent, my interests are widening in scope.
This is a good story because this is about power and we're trying to expose things that people don't want us to see or know about. And we're trying to stop them from happening in the future.
On the kind of imagery used in the film:
I was quite taken when we were in the Central Valley, driving down a road that on one side was totally lush and green, and on the other side was the dustbowl. I was like, Wait! Pull over! We need to shoot this! It's kind of like the signature shot of our movie. Like, How did this happen?
"Water & Power: A California Heist" had its world premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and is now available on demand on the National Geographic Channel, and on iTunes, Amazon and GooglePlay.
Director Ritesh Batra on 'The Sense of an Ending' and film censorship in India
Indian-born filmmaker Ritesh Batra won international acclaim for his debut feature film "The Lunchbox" in 2013.
After getting back to work writing and generating his own material, he was offered the opportunity to direct a film adaption of a novel he'd admired for some time— "The Sense of an Ending" by Julian Barnes.
The book— as well as the movie version— tells the story of a man named Tony Webster (played as an adult by Jim Broadbent) whose memory of his actions in the past may not square with the damage that he actually caused:
When Batra visited The Frame, he talked about the parallels between “The Lunchbox” and "The Sense of an Ending," and about film censorship in India.
Interview highlights:
On making films with somewhat ambiguous endings:
What is really exciting, and not just for me, but for many other filmmakers out there, is to try to find lines to walk on rather than commit to a certain notion or idea. Because you don't want to be telling a story about an ethical concept. You don't want to be telling a story about, you know, say a liberal versus a conservative. Life is more complicated than that. And this story [in "The Sense of an Ending"], and as did "The Lunchbox," offered me a really nice chance [to do that]. For example, for lovers of the book, there's a letter in the story that Tony forgets he wrote, and because the book is a first-person account, we take his word for it. You know, he says he forgot, and we are in Tony's shoes and he's talking to the reader, and we say Well yeah if he says he forgot, then he forgot. But in the movie, when this is in front of you and you have this flawed character of Tony Webster in front of you in flesh and blood, and you're telling the story through relationships, we really had to find that line between Did he forget or did he conveniently forget? Did he forget or is he lying? And to just have the story travel on the line was really interesting. But that's the exciting part. The exciting part is not trying to leave it open-ended, but the exciting part is trying to find this fine line we can walk on and take the audience along.
On film censorship in India and parts of "The Sense of an Ending" being edited out:
I don’t come at this issue in a sort of an angry or verbose way. I just think, when I see these things happening, I wonder How sad are the lives of the people who are sitting there and having to decide what to cut from a movie? But I think there's a journey to be had, you know. And of course activism is a part of it, being vocal is a part of it, but also being patient is a part of it. Because when I was growing up in India, it was just not too long ago, it was in the late 80s into the 90s, and we were a very closed society. We were the only democracy in the world that was on the other side of the Iron Curtain, we were closely allied to the U.S.S.R. And now in the last 10-15 years, the doors have opened and there's just been an immense change in society. And, you know, change takes time. And sometimes we also go backwards. But... it is troubling, but I think patience is also such a big part of wanting to move in a certain direction.
To hear the full interview, click the blue player above.