Filmmaker Files - Episode 12: Featuring Iram Parveen Bilal
Raised in Nigeria and Pakistan, IRAM PARVEEN BILAL is a Physics Olympian-turned-filmmaker. In 2007, she formed Parveen Shah Productions - a global production company that focuses on stories that elevate the human condition. Iram’s third narrative feature, I’LL MEET YOU THERE, recently had its world premiere in competition at SXSW. The film is a family drama about a Muslim cop and his teenage ballerina daughter.
Iram was one of 15 directors invited to La Cinéfondation's L'Atelier at Cannes to develop her next feature project, WAKHRI (ONE OF A KIND), based on an accidental social media star in Pakistan. With an eye towards TV, Iram is shopping her one-hour show, DETAINED, which follows two matriarchs stuck at an ICE detention center. DETAINED made the top-20 un-produced, female-written pilots’ list for WeForShe. Her past noted feature length works include JOSH (AGAINST THE GRAIN), which became Pakistan's first film on Netflix and found a place at the US Library of Congress. Iram is an active mentor for women in film and tech and she believes genuine curiosity is the only antidote to fear. She is now the proud mother of a three-month-old daughter.
At honto88 we focus on making brave stuff that makes you stop, think, and look again. Describe a moment in your career when you felt the most brave.
It was right after Trump’s Muslim travel ban in 2017. As a Muslim American, it was a terrible blow to my sense of safety and security in a country I call home. But more urgently, it intruded on my family’s plans, as my mother, a permanent resident in need of life-contingent medical care, was due to arrive from Pakistan ten days after the order came into effect. When I heard about the protests at LAX, I rushed home so I could get my bandana and protein bar (my post-2016 election’s protest staples) and headed to the airport to join. When I arrived, the signs and the deafening chants hit my gut instantly: “Muslims Welcome Here.” “Let them in.” “This is how it starts.” An older woman, a complete stranger, noticed that I was overwhelmed and emotional. She came over and gave me a comforting hug. “It’s ok,” she said. “We’re here for you.” And just like that, she disappeared into the crowd. A renewed faith rose in me. There was more support for my community than I knew.
A few days later, I launched the crowdfunding campaign for my feature I’LL MEET YOU THERE, that follows a Muslim family, and we raised more than $100,000! When the world is behind you, you are invincible.
In one’s artistic life, there are some very long seconds or moments that make us stop. There may be an epiphany or a shift. Can you tell us about a recent one?
A few months ago, the announcement had just gone out that I’LL MEET YOU THERE would be premiering in narrative competition at SXSW, my TV spec script was making the rounds, and I had just become a mother. It seemed that 2020 was going to be my year, but then the COVID19 crisis hit.
This pandemic is a reminder that very little is in our control and that we must learn to pivot and improvise, that no one life is of more value than any other. More than that, we must be humble and supportive of nature and our environment.
Now, continuing to reflect. What was THE film that made you want to be a filmmaker (or actor)?
I have grown up on Yash Chopra’s Bollywood-woven dreams. I became a filmmaker because of Shah Rukh Khan. In fact my production company is called Parveen Shah Productions - Parveen is my mother’s name and Shah is for Shah Rukh.
One of my favorite films is DIL SE that stars SRK and the indelible Manisha Koirala, with its incredible performances and haunting music.
However, the film that made me want to be a filmmaker has to be Wong Kar Wai’s IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. The pain of the characters is so visceral and so relatable. The colors, the music, the tempo, the mood – it is a call-back to some of the melodrama in Bollywood while creating its own genre.
What was a recent film, video or series that you had a visceral response to?
LITTLE AMERICA on Apple TV+. It is an anthology series about immigrant stories, EP’ed by Kumail Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon and Alan Yang, to name a few. In a thirty-minute span, we are completely immersed into the lives of these various immigrants who have come to the United States for various reasons, from disparate backgrounds. The series hit really close to home and I connected with every one of the eight episodes; that is no small feat for storytelling.
On the future. What is next for you?
I’m looking forward to taking I’LL MEET YOU THERE to various film festivals around the world, while planning a theatrical run ahead of our VOD release later this year. I am planning on filming my next feature, WAKHRI (ONE OF A KIND) in Lahore in 2021, God-willing! I’m targetting directing TV as well as developing more TV, from DETAINED to other specific, yet universal stories.
What keeps you going?
I thrive on the energy of my loved ones, and the faith they have in me. I also get strength from my various mentees who I have inspired and who inspire me in return.
What does the world need now?
We need patience and forgiveness. We need awareness and harmony. We need to travel, learn, host and share with people who are different from us. The more we learn, the more we realize our similarities. As my husband says quite often, we need to be more thoughtful of our footprint, not just our carbon footprint on our environment, but also our emotional footprint on others.
And our final, favorite part - 8 movie scenes/filmmaker quotes that you love or are definitive of your attitude and inspiration.
Mira Nair’s THE NAMESAKE - after Irrfan Khan’s character’s death, Tabu’s character runs around her house switching on every light possible and stands freezing in her sari in the garage as the garage door rises above her. In that sequence, you immediately feel her life draining from her body and her desperation to hold on to something that has slipped away.
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE by Wong Kar Wai – the various slow motion shots of the two secret lovers passing in the narrow alleys and hallways, with all eyes on them.
The single dolly shot across the bottom half of the prison bath stalls in A PROPHET by Jacque Audiard. It is so visceral. Between the action of the actors’ legs, the sound design and the music, you instantly get the environment, the threat and the world of this particular prison.
In DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAYENGE, when Raj comes to “save” Simran in her village in India and she runs through the mustard fields to hug him. I still remember the force with which she falls into his arms. His body is jerked back a tiny bit to absorb the force. Every time I watch it, I feel the weight of that hug; the relief, the love.
On his radio show, Shah Rukh Khan’s character in DIL SE visceraly narrates his first meeting with Manisha Koirala’s character. You are immersed in the details of his observation of his lover.
TRAINSPOTTING by Danny Boyle has these experimental montage sequences like no other.
BEFORE SUNRISE by Richard Linklater – Oh, the final goodbye scene!
And CHILDREN OF HEAVEN by Majid Majidi– I love every single scene! But specifically the inciting scene when the brother informs his sister that he has lost her shoes.