Melbourne Documentary Film Festival 2019 – Pariah Dog
Pariah Dog paints a lyrical, kaleidoscopic picture of the city of Kolkata, seen through the prism of four outsiders and the neglected street dogs they love. The film gains intimate access to the lives of its subjects as they both care for the stray animals around them, and struggle to find their own place in this crowded megacity.
Interview with Director/Producer/Editor Jesse Alk
Watch Pariah Dog on Prime Video, iTunes, Kanopy, dafilms and True Story
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I first visited Kolkata in 2010, and I was hypnotized by the city from the moment I landed. The street dogs were an immediate focus for me. Something about their intense suffering, their (in my experience) friendliness, and the way they were a part of the city, but also completely separate from it drew me to them. By 2013, after three or four more trips, I had decided I had to make a film centering on the street dogs. It took about a year of planning before I made my first scouting trip to shoot some preliminary footage in early 2014, and seven months later I quit my job, gave up my apartment in Los Angeles, and dedicated myself to the film full-time.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Many people in the West have an idea of what Kolkata is like (or Calcutta, to use its former name). But there's so much more to that incredible, frustrating, beautiful city that we see in western documentaries. More than anything, I wanted to capture the feeling of being there, which I felt was so different from anything I saw in the many documentaries shot in Kolkata focusing on slums or social problems. The city is a major character in the film, and I think if you give yourself over to it, you'll feel like you've experienced a really special place which you never knew existed.
Obviously, the film is about street dogs, who are suffering is terrible, but also about the dedication of a few people whose entire lives revolve around alleviating that suffering. They aren't perfect people. Their lives are not easy. But they all try their best, in imperfect circumstances, to make sense out of a world that is less caring than they wish it was, and they all fight to make it a little bit better. The film is sad at times, and it even can be tough to watch in parts. But we never wallow in that sadness, because the people in our film never do. They keep fighting to make their small part of the world a better place, to the best of their abilities.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Pariah Dog is the story of people who have a lot of personal challenges, but who keep moving forward, find a purpose in life, create their own identity, and fight for what they believe in. I think that's a struggle we all can relate to. On a personal level, I made the film at a time when I was in a crisis of meaning in my own life. I felt aimless, I'd lost a sense of passion. A recent death in my immediate family had left me asking a lot of questions about mortality, suffering, the care we provide or don't provide for each other, and what makes living life worthwhile. All I had wanted to do in life was to make documentaries, but I hadn't followed that dream. When I felt this pull from Kolkata, I knew I had to make a film there, and knew it had to be about these lonely dogs, fighting to carve out their own piece of the world, thousands of miles from where I had lived my entire life. In the following years, I would joke with my Bengali friends and collaborators on Pariah Dog that I had flown halfway around the world to make a film about loneliness. As we cast the film, I found people who were struggling with these things, all in their own way. Life can be a hard, at times it can feel as if we are all fighting through this world alone. I think it's one of the reasons I was able to bond with the people in the film, despite language and cultural barriers. We were dealing with the same issues, just in different ways.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
The film was originally intended to focus much more on the street dogs themselves. When I first moved to Kolkata, I thought it would be a film with very little dialogue, 70% footage of street dogs living their lives in the city, 30% observational footage of some of the people who feed them. But I really became fascinated with the people I found. I knew from the beginning that I would need very intimate footage, that I wanted to explore some very personal reasons as to why these people did this kind of work, and what their lives were like apart from it. And because there were four people, all of whom required a lot of screen time, a lot of really incredible dog footage ended up being cut in the final pass. I think in the end we found the perfect balance, but that change in focus to the human characters was a profound shift that happened early in the process.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
So far the feedback has been incredible. The film premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, where it won Best Feature. As a first-time filmmaker, winning an award like that at my very first festival was quite overwhelming. Apart from that, it has been very interesting to see how people respond. It's not a film for everyone, there's not a lot of context or backstory, but I've been happy to see that not only "film people" seem to like it. We recently played San Francisco Docfest, and members of the Indian dog-rescue community flew in from as far away as Montreal, Winnipeg, Rhode Island, and San Diego just to see Pariah Dog. I was thrilled that they not only came so far to see the film but loved it. I'm even more thrilled that the reaction within India has been overwhelmingly positive. Major newspapers and online outlets are covering the film, and every person I've shown it to in Kolkata has been extremely positive about it. Two Bengali filmmakers separately told me that I'd made "a Bengali film," which I think was probably the best compliment I've ever received.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
I had some interesting feedback at our premiere from someone who was concerned that the images in the film may be read through an Orientalist lens by people who don't have the tools to interpret them in any other way. It's something I'm very sensitive to. We were very conscious during the shooting to avoid what westerners think of as "exotic" images when possible, to avoid unnecessary images of poverty, and to be as focused and specific as possible. It's not a film about those things, so we were very conscious in the edit about how much material which might be read that way was included. I edited the film in Kolkata, with advice from my local collaborators and other Bengali filmmakers, who really helped me find things in the footage I might have missed otherwise and to avoid some obvious cultural pitfalls. But the idea that I was responsible for the reactions of people who might misinterpret the footage based on their own prejudices, and that I was responsible for trying to mitigate that damage before it happened was new to me. I'm still not sure how I feel about that, but I think I can't control what the reaction is, I can only focus on my own process and own intentions. And I know for sure that my intentions were good and that I was as honest as I possibly could be. Everyone except for myself who worked on the film up until the sound mix was from Kolkata, and together we tried to make something different, which didn't fit into any of those western stereotypes.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Immediately, I'm really hoping people find out about the Melbourne Documentary Festival screening, and follow the film on our website and social media as we continue our festival run, which seems to be shaping up nicely so far, and building momentum every day.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We're still looking for festival programming through early 2020, commercial distribution, and more press opportunities. We'd be open to talking with sales agents, as well.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I hope that people can become more aware of the issues surrounding street dogs in India. I think changing perceptions of the dogs and their worth can have a massive effect on the quality of their lives. When the local community embraces the dogs so much can change, the animals become more integrated, are treated better, and cause fewer problems. The film is called Pariah Dog because of the way it mirrors some of the issues our human characters face, but we all prefer the term "community dogs." I'm really hoping for a good festival release in India later this year, and hope to find some kind of online distribution which will make it available within India so that some of that discussion takes place around the film.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Is it right to focus on animal suffering in a place with so many challenges for the human population? No easy answers to that one, although the people in the film have very strong opinions about it.
Would you like to add anything else?
We have several festival screenings confirmed through the fall which I'm not allowed to announce yet. We'll be posting them on our social media soon, so check back with us to see if Pariah Dog is coming to your city!
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I'm working on an idea for a documentary set in Alaska, where I have a lot of families, but I'll need to do a serious scouting trip later this year to see if it is feasible.
Interview: May 2019
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Pariah Dog
Pariah Dog paints a lyrical, kaleidoscopic picture of the city of Kolkata, seen through the prism of four outsiders and the neglected street dogs they love. The film gains intimate access to the lives of its subjects as they both care for the stray animals around them, and struggle to find their own place in this crowded megacity.
Length: 1:16:56
Director: Jesse Alk
Producer: Jesse Alk
Writer: Jesse Alk & Koustav Sinha
About the writer, director and producer:
JESSE ALK was born in Ottawa, Canada, to US parents. He graduated with honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz, studied briefly at the NYU TISCH School of the Arts film department, and then attended the University of California, Los Angeles MFA Directing Program in the School of Theater, Film, and Television. He is the son of the late documentary filmmaker Howard Alk. Pariah Dog is his first feature film.
KOUSTAV SINHA attended the Post Graduation Diploma program at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, specializing in Sound Design. Being a qualified scriptwriter he developed a sound knowledge of film language. His extensive involvement in documentary films as sync sound recordist probed him further to explore this new language of non-fiction. His intention is to bring out the poetics of fiction through the mundane dramas of the real world.
Looking for: distributors, journalists, film festival directors, buyers, sales agents
Facebook: Pariah Dog
Twitter: @pariahdogmovie
Instagram: @pariahdogmovie
Hashtags used: #pariahdogmovie
Website: www.pariahdogmovie.com
Other: IMDb
Funders: Self-funded.
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Melbourne Documentary Film Festival/Melbourne, Australia - July 23rd