Backstage Interview Transcript | 81st Academy Awards
Best documentary short subject
CATEGORY: Best documentary short subject
INTERVIEW WITH: Megan Mylan
FILM: "Smile Pinki"
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Q. Hi, Megan. Congratulations.
A. Thank you.
Q. Hi.
A. They care about us.
Q. We do; we care a lot. And so many people don't care about shorts until they see them on the Oscars. How does it feel to be exposed to such an audience and how do people know about it and why should they see it?
A. Well, I think that's a challenge that documentaries in general face, like, it's medicine. Well, they aren't they're every bit as creative as movies and take you to some other reality. And the advantage of the film being short is people can gamble a little bit and they can walk into theater for, in our case, 40 minutes; you can watch a sitcom in 40 minutes. So I feel there's a real advantage. But I think it actually challenges the filmmaker to be I mean, just like journalists, you have to be more efficient when it's your words or you just have to be more efficient in your story telling.
Q. Hi, Megan. Congratulations.
A. Thank you.
Q. How did you decide 40 minutes was the length it was going to be?
A. I think each story just has its natural length, and this one, our first it's a journey story; in some ways it's a very simple story. I hope that folks who see it see all other levels of nuance and think about family and poverty and [inaudible] and all that. But it's a journey story; it's a little girl who is born with a birth defect that's very easy to cure, and we follow her on the journey to have that new beginning. You know, her inner beauty gets to be matched with her outer beauty. And it has the natural journey story trajectory to it, and it's just a decision you make at some point: How many other levels are you going to add in and how many other story lines? And we just decided to focus really closely on her and the people in her life.
Q. Hi, Megan. How did you overcome making a self consciousness or shame on the part of parents or kids in the film?
A. Well, so for those of you who don't know, our film is about a little girl and a little boy, whose name didn't make it into the title, who are both from very, very poor, simple rural villages. They don't have running water, they don't have electricity, and now Pinki is sitting out here at the Oscars. And I was trying to explain to her that not every day of my life is like this. I think she just thinks this is what America is like. We all get dressed up, and she met me in jeans and a T shirt the first time I met her. I actually don't feel like her parents should feel any shame.
And what was wonderful about the social workers and the team at the hospital, they don't blame the parents. You know, society has blamed these parents; they tell them that the daughter was born during an eclipse and the mother was cutting vegetables. And there's all sorts of superstition all around the world that black children are born with a split lip as if the parents have done something wrong to deserve it. But what I love, it was just an embracing, "You didn't know, now you know; now we will show you." And then the families become educators and they tell the rest of the communities that. And I hope it's not just cleft lips, it's just children sometimes aren't born in our definition of perfection, and if you can seek out a way to help your child, you should try every resource that's out there.
Q. Thank you so much and congratulations.
A. Thank you.
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