DIRECTOR'S NOTE
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In 2014 I completed a very successful film called The Game Changer, a film about a woman Susan Slotnick who taught dance in prisons in Upstate New York. This short film went on to be in 17 film festivals and took me to the Cannes film Festival. What made this film successful was that it was about a person and the effect on the lives of these men who were in prison and who came out to form a dance troupe. I have been making documentaries for many years and after graduating from Hofstra University in New York I came back home to make more films. I realized that there was someone here in my country that was important in my own life, my dance teacher Indira Manikam (Teacher) instilled confidence in me at a crucial time when I needed it. Teacher taught me through dance how to be a strong woman in the world, how to be confident. These lessons saved my life in some ways and I wanted to make this film about teacher as a way to show the world who she is, what legacy she created through 50 years of teaching dance to hundreds of students and to people who have gone on to teach. As a documentary filmmaker I believe that the lives of people are important, that their stories are important. While filming Teacher I spent time in her house, siting in her kitchen, roaming through her bedroom, seeing these normal everyday things that she would use to dress in for her dance performances, the simple silver tumbler that she uses to drink from, lying on her bed with her daughters laughing at the antics of her husband making jokes. All of these things, normal things, the things that we all do in our own lives allow us to see our similarity and yet we all have our own unique stories. In 100 years from now when someone wants to know about the teaching of Bharatanatyam dance in Malaysia, a dance form kept alive by a tradition bearer who dedicated her life to preserving this dance, they may see this film and will know about this teacher of mine who changed my life and the lives of so many who encountered her. |
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As a filmmaker I want to take the ordinary lives of people and show the world how extraordinary they really are. I believe we are all extraordinary people. Teacher is just an ordinary woman who started a dance school, brought up two beautiful girls who also became dancers and a woman who had the most extraordinary influence on many students. But most of all teacher changed my life and to this end I made this documentary to show you the extraordinary life of Indira Manikam. - (PHOTO BY SIVABALAN TAVAMANY)
BY INDRANI KOPAL
SEPTEMBER 5, 2017
BY INDRANI KOPAL
SEPTEMBER 5, 2017
ABOUT INDRANI KOPAL
Indrani Kopal
Editor | Producer | Director
www.indranikopal.com
Indrani Kopal is an award winning documentary filmmaker. Her short documentary was accepted into 17 film festivals and won several awards. She is a former video journalist at Malaysiakini.com, a prestigious news agency in Malaysia. Indrani is a Fulbright Fellow and has actively assisted in community outreach and diversity building programs at Hofstra University in New York. She spearheaded the Citizen Journalism Malaysia Program (cj.my), which empowers the public to have local and personal stories heard in Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia.
She founded Far East Documentary center and formed a biography film project to support the fact that the sharing of our personal stories remind us that we are not alone. It is through the process of documentary that our mundane stories become profound. Indrani Kopal often employs various filmmaking methodologies such as participatory video and video diaries that allow members of the community to engage within their own story and find their own narrative. - (PHOTO BY LAKSHMANA RAJA)
Awards & Honors
• 2016 AGNI Youth Icon Award.
• 2015 Kalai Payanam Award, Certificate for International Achievement.
• 2015 Great Women Of Our Time Award for “Arts & Media” by The Malaysian Women’s Weekly Magazine.
• 2015 Best Student Documentary Award at The American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes, France.
• 2014 Bustle’s Annual Upstart Award.
• 2014 Best Short Documentary at 9th Annual Harlem International Film Festival, New York.
• 2012-2014 Fulbright Malaysian Graduate Study And Research Scholarship Award.
• 2010 George Washington University 2010 International Emerging Documentary Filmmakers Fellowship.
• 2008 Most Outstanding Asian Youth Ambassador (AYA) Award, Runner up.
• 2007 Justin Louis Award in Freedom Film Festival, Film ‘She’s My Son’
• 2016 AGNI Youth Icon Award.
• 2015 Kalai Payanam Award, Certificate for International Achievement.
• 2015 Great Women Of Our Time Award for “Arts & Media” by The Malaysian Women’s Weekly Magazine.
• 2015 Best Student Documentary Award at The American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes, France.
• 2014 Bustle’s Annual Upstart Award.
• 2014 Best Short Documentary at 9th Annual Harlem International Film Festival, New York.
• 2012-2014 Fulbright Malaysian Graduate Study And Research Scholarship Award.
• 2010 George Washington University 2010 International Emerging Documentary Filmmakers Fellowship.
• 2008 Most Outstanding Asian Youth Ambassador (AYA) Award, Runner up.
• 2007 Justin Louis Award in Freedom Film Festival, Film ‘She’s My Son’
