Sunday, April 18, 2010

CLASH OF THE TITANS--But Why Does the Villanous Lunatic Look Like a Hindu Sadhu?

I went to a screening of CLASH OF THE TITANS last night.  I'm curious why the filmmakers chose to portray the villainous lunatic gentleman (who towards the end becomes a worshiper of the Dark God Hades and rouses the rabble to sacrifice Andromeda) in the garb of a Hindu "sadhu" (a "sadhu" is a Hindu holy man, a man who has devoted his life to God).  The character is bare-chested, with a "tilak" mark on the spot where his third eye would be, with ashes smeared on his upper arms, and with what looks like a knee-length dhoti around his waist.  Symbols like a tilak and holy ash are sacred to Hindus; so are sadhus, by the way.  You could swap this character easily for any Hindu holy sadhu who prays in our temples in India--so close was the physical dress and depiction.  My husband, who is neither Indian nor Hindu, remarked about this character being made to look like a Hindu sadhu after the screening.  He said that the filmmakers would never have dared make the character look like an imam or mullah, a rabbi or priest.  Hindus make for easy targets because they are tolerant/apathetic to a fault, thanks to thousands of years of invasions--and conversions.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

CLOSET LAND on DVD

I get a lot of queries from people who like my film, and I empathize with your frustration at not being able to readily find my film in digital format.  Unfortunately, I don't own the rights to my own film--when a writer-director such as myself makes a film, we sell the rights to our script and creation to the producing or distribution entity.   I am therefore not sure which entity now owns the digital distribution rights to my film--that entity is the one who can get it out on DVD.