Bonus Episode: To Kill a Tiger director Nisha Pahuja and editor Mike Munn

In this bonus episode of The Cinematography Podcast, we interview
director Nisha Pahuja and editor Mike Munn about the documentary To
Kill a Tiger. The film is nominated for an Academy Award for Best
Documentary Feature. **A warning that this episode discusses sexual
assault and violence, so please take care.** To Kill a Tiger is the
story of Ranjit, a farmer in Jharkhand, India whose 13 year old
daughter is raped by three men from her village. Ranjit is
determined to get justice for his daughter through the legal
system. In India, men rarely stand up for their daughters and
conviction rates for rape are less than 30 percent. It’s common
practice in the village for a girl to be married off to her abuser
instead. Rangit and his family faced down threats of violence and
ostracism by the townspeople. Director Nisha Pahuja was originally
making a documentary studying Indian masculinity when she met
Ranjit and his daughter. She followed their story for about 18
months, thinking they would only be one part of the story. Only in
the editing process did the story start to take shape. It became
clear that Ranjit and his daughter Kiran were the strongest
characters. Nisha admired Ranjit's courage and love for his
daughter. “I just think Ranjit is the kind of person who has this
idea of doing the right thing inside of him. He's just a very
ethical, thoughtful person.” Because Kiran was only 13 at the time,
Nisha had to be careful about revealing her identity. By the time
the film was finished, Kiran was 18, and gave permission to show
her face. Nisha says, “She said it was because she couldn't believe
how courageous she was when she was watching herself, she couldn't
believe her own courage and her own bravery. And she wanted to
celebrate that.” Nisha's husband Mrinal Desai was the primary
cinematographer on To Kill a Tiger, and they lived together in
India while making the documentary. Nisha finds that he has a very
quiet and gentle way with the people they film. She, Mrinal and
their sound recordist Anita Kushwaha have worked together for a
long time and are able to create an atmosphere of intimacy and
trust. Editor Mike Munn spent about 8 months working on the film
before he decided that they had to distill it down to the best
story. “We were wrestling a lot because we had, in fact, two
different films. So Ranjit's story was so specific and so well
drawn out that it needed its own place. So, we jettisoned all of
that work that we'd done.” Mike started expanding Ranjit's story
and discovered that this version of the film has a clear narrative
arc with interesting characters. Fortunately, the raw footage came
back from India with a basic transcription and subtitles that could
be polished during the edit with the help of a translator. Mike
says, “My favorite part overall was working with the observational
and verite nature of the film. It was so intimate and real and
we're all creating scenes out of real emotion. This was a film
where the narrative was all happening within real scenes with the
family. That was challenging, but rewarding in just the
truthfulness of it.” To Kill a Tiger is in select theaters.
https://tokillatigerfilm.com/ Find Nisha Pahuja:
http://www.noticepicturesinc.com/ Instagram @nishappics Find Mike
Munn: https://mikemunneditor.com/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras
www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website:
www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter:
@ShortEndz