One Week Countdown

December 28, 2011–Wednesday 8:14 PM – Hamden, CT

One week from today I will step onto a plane bound for India. This is not a new experience for me. I've been there many times and have many friends awaiting my return there.  It is difficult to say what the best way is to prepare for such a trip. I won't go into the details about that because it will bore you. I am nervous, though. “Research” tends to be an almost all-inclusive term for anything I might experience on this trip and somehow incorporate into my screenplay. Regardless, everything I experience will somehow incorporate itself into my screenplay. My consciousness will become a filter. My brain will be the cheesecloth. So then, how do you prepare for that? Is it possible to get the butterflies out of your stomach before you jump off? Is that the definition of preparation? Or perhaps it is more like the lackadaisical rejection of “feeling prepared” altogether. I wouldn't mind the butterflies if I knew exactly what I was doing.  I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm writing a blog, aren't I?

A $30 camera shoulder mount that looks dangerous. 

Armed with a camera and a pen, I am prepared to be faithful to this blog.

 

Introduction

google image compilation of title concept

I am spending January 3rd through March 13th researching personal stories regarding the effects of alcoholism and physical disabilities on family dynamics in India  for a full-length Bollywood screenplay I'll be finishing in the spring.  The film is about a young man who, after falling in love with a paralyzed dancer in Mumbai, discovers that his estranged father’s alcoholism and run-ins with the mob are to blame for his girlfriend's accident. Now the mob is threatening him for his father's debts and he must protect himself and those he loves from a broken past.  My hope is to address disability stigmas in the context of an independently dramatic family drama and eventually pitch the script to some actual filmmakers. This project, in a sense, is a culminating experience for my time in India up to this point, which you can learn more about at www.escip.org.

The purpose of this blog is to give myself an audience during this research phase so as to keep my observations objective and my reflections catered to a broader and more public discussion of the issues I encounter.  Film is a very public medium, often dealing with very private and intimate struggles of life, and so I want to go about recording my findings with the same delicate treatment I would expect in the finished cinematic presentation.  Therefore, all persons I discuss here from my research will remain anonymous and unidentifiable.  As this project is supposed to promote discussion on the topics of social stigmas, your comments are greatly encouraged and appreciated.