Interview with PJ Raval by Jonathan Joseph Ganjian\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Following the screening of his new film Before You Know It <\/i>\u00a0I was able to score an interview with director PJ Raval about the process behind the film, his work as it relates to the LGBT and straight community alike and his hopes for the message behind this documentary.\u00a0 Enjoy.<\/p>\n
J:\u00a0 Thanks so much for taking the time for this interview PJ, this is a great film and comes on the heels of your past success with Trinidad<\/i>; what else is brewing?<\/b><\/p>\n
I always keep quiet but I will say that yes I have a narrative feature I want to make, that a friend of mine is writing the screenplay and I have another documentary idea; which is funny because when I finished my last documentary Trinidad<\/i> that was also a similar three to four years so I was like, \u201cI\u2019m done, I\u2019m gonna take a break, I\u2019ll maybe think of another documentary like six years from now, but immediately I thought of the new one, ya know?\u00a0 And it was interesting because, after I made that film so many of the issues I\u2019m looking at are these ideas of coming out; the idea of coming out as transgendered what does that mean; educating everyone and kind of like, challenging those stereotypes of, \u201cIt\u2019s a small town so therefore they must not accept them.\u201d when actually they do, right?\u00a0 Giving that trust to community, that not everyone is discriminating.\u00a0 I feel with this one I\u2019m looking at these ideas of aging and ya know those things and so I do have a third documentary in mind and my point is that when I finish something I think it pushes me into another direction to think about.\u00a0 So after making Trinidad<\/i> I really thought about, \u201cWell, what about aging and this and that?\u201d\u00a0 Now that this one\u2019s made, I\u2019ve had that experience and I\u2019m having experiences like this and having conversations and I\u2019m definitely formulating a new idea and I\u2019m not gonna talk about it yet but for sure!<\/p>\n
J:\u00a0 What\u2019s one thing that you, when going into the project, thought might come up in filming and actually didn\u2019t?\u00a0 Like one issue that perhaps you brought as a preconceived notion or thought oh I\u2019m talking about aging so clearly XYZ is going to come up but didn\u2019t?<\/b><\/p>\n
That\u2019s a good question, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I thought, you know it\u2019s really interesting…when we were writing grants for this I had a list of like, these are potential characters and there was this, this and this and it was a lot of more things you would read on statistics but obviously I make the films that aren\u2019s so much statistics and facts it\u2019s more personal so it really comes down to who you find and what you found interesting.\u00a0 I think what I find interesting about these three characters is I relate to them in so many ways at different stages.\u00a0 So, things that are missing: someone brought up that one of the characters is not a lesbian, one of the characters is not transgender though I don\u2019t think Dennis would consider himself trans, but maybe some similar concepts of blurring that line of gender and labels and those kinds of expectations placed upon you.\u00a0 That\u2019s kinda what I\u2019ll say about it so in terms of things missing I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
J:\u00a0 What\u2019s something that you edited out and wish you\u2019d kept?<\/b><\/p>\n
Oh God, there\u2019s so many good things it\u2019s always difficult.\u00a0 There was a whole section that I cut out about Dennis.\u00a0 We allude to it, Dennis is a space fanatic, and not only space as in like Star Trek but actual like Mars Rover, outer space.\u00a0 He believes in colonizing Mars, things like that and so there was a whole section like that.\u00a0 I miss the section but you know of course you have to choose what you put in.\u00a0 There was a whole section where Dennis talks about how he sometimes has dreams where he wakes up and he\u2019s on Mars and it was such a crazy….but if you think about it, he would talk about how, \u201cwhy don\u2019t they send people like me to Mars, because what to we have left to lose?\u201d that kind of thing and I don\u2019t know there was something really cool about which unfortunately didn\u2019t make it in.<\/p>\n
J: What ways to you feel your work is looking to engage the queer community even further in the future?<\/b><\/p>\n
This might not answer your question entirely but when I\u2019m making my work I want everyone to see it, I really do.\u00a0 But of course I want to it to speak to the community as well.\u00a0 Part of my mission is trying to make work where you can have that intersection ya know with the straight people in the audience with the gay people in the audience.<\/p>\n
J: Do you see yourself as a filmmaker cum activist?<\/b><\/p>\n
Definitely a filmmaker but, it\u2019s interesting because I\u2019ve never thought of myself as an activist or what I do as activism.\u00a0 I like telling stories.<\/p>\n
J: But in the telling that is it\u2019s own activism with these untold stories<\/b><\/p>\n
Of course, I want people to feel, I want people to identify, I want people to get angry, elicit some kind of emotion some kind of something to think about something to really walk away with.\u00a0 For me, it\u2019s true kinda what you were saying earlier, I do love picking, selecting subjects and topics that are overlooked and I think that\u2019s why I do it is because I want you to think about these things.\u00a0 Something that you maybe have not thought about and now you can think about it and think about with me \u2018cuz that\u2019s what I\u2019m thinking about right now.<\/p>\n
J: So you like taking people on that journey behind the lens with you?<\/b><\/p>\n
Yeah kind of you know?\u00a0 It really is a bit of a trust factor especially when you\u2019re trying to get people to help you with this film and I say, \u201cokay well let\u2019s go out into the community and I\u2019m gonna meet these seniors and it\u2019s gonna be an amazing film, trust me trust me!\u201d\u00a0 I can\u2019t show it to you yet because it\u2019s not there but…I will!\u00a0 Here are my ideas and its really like a leap of faith.<\/p>\n
J: Who was the most difficult group to pitch that leap of faith to?<\/b><\/p>\n
No one really<\/p>\n
J: Was the film something you felt, \u201cOh my God there were all these people waiting for this movie to happen?\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n
Two things:\u00a0 When I was making the film, talking to grant making organizations things like that they understood the importance and they understood that WOW this would be amazing, I had a sample and I was showing them and this and that.\u00a0 When it\u2019s now a finished film right, the challenge is trying to get film distributors, film venues to understand it\u2019s NOT just going to be gay seniors coming to see this film.\u00a0 You need to open your mind a bit and see that people have all kinds of interests and good story is a good story and you will relate to it somehow.\u00a0 I do think that it\u2019s up, thank God The Lincoln Center Film Society was like I love this film. That\u2019s great, if it wasn\u2019t for something like this I don\u2019t know who would get exposure to it.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a challenge because, that\u2019s the challenge right?\u00a0 People don\u2019t find it a quote-unquote \u201cSexy\u201d topic…BUT IT IS! That\u2019s the funny thing is like, it\u2019s relatable to everyone.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if the crazy action film that I see is maybe relatable to everyone.\u00a0 Maybe it is maybe its not some people don\u2019t have interest in them but, everyone gets older.<\/p>\n
J: Do feel part of the reason this film resonates is because aging is universal and because regardless of whether you\u2019re gay, straight, transgendered whatever it is…you understand the solitude in the eyes of Dee when she\u2019s looking around the bar in that scene (my favorite shot)? Do you feel that this film could be an opportunity to bring together older heterosexuals who maybe don\u2019t have an understanding of the gay community?<\/b><\/p>\n
Absolutely!\u00a0 Yeah, okay so early on when I had the idea for the film and I told the producer of the film who came on, Sarah, she was like, \u201cWow okay this sounds like a very important topic\u201d and we had worked together on the last film and she\u2019s like, I love the idea of how you like to do these portraits this will be really great and I really thought, I don\u2019t know who I\u2019m gonna meet exactly I just need to go.\u00a0 It\u2019s true what I was saying in the Q&A a lot of it was just kind of like my intuition and just my own interest and when I met Dennis he\u2019s like so fascinating for all these reasons and when you find someone like that who\u2019s willing to share their story in a film and a documentary it\u2019s gold you know what I mean?\u00a0 It\u2019s so inspiring and so for me so much of it is that and so I just trusted the process and I trusted the subjects of the film that if I find them fascinating clearly someone else has to also and if I\u2019m moved by this hopefully someone else will be too.\u00a0 I think when you\u2019re in that kind of creative process it\u2019s hard but I feel like so much has to happen where you have to resist the \u201cwhat are people gonna think about it.\u201d cuz I don\u2019t even know what I think about it yet.\u00a0 I have get it to the point where I understand it and that\u2019s usually when it\u2019s done and I\u2019m watching it.\u00a0 So, for instance when we finished the film and I started screening it we were using some written materials from way earlier that were more like when I wasn\u2019t sure what the film what the film was gonna be like and it was statistics about LGBT seniors and the importance and then after the experience of making the film and revisiting that, the producer and I were like, \u201cYou know what, this actually doesn\u2019t describe our film anymore, that was maybe the inspiration like we really have to look at it now for what it is.\u201d\u00a0 None of the materials early on say, \u201cwell this film is actually going to be a celebration of life!\u201d and I think it is you know what I mean?\u00a0 It\u2019s these ideas of self-acceptance and the need for community.<\/p>\n
J: Well, thank you so much PJ for giving our audience such a great look into what went into making Before You Know it<\/i>, I think that wraps it up for us today.<\/b><\/p>\n