A Women Make Movies Release SALMA Director Kim Longinotto Screenwriter Ollie Huddleston Executive Producers Hamish Mykura, Anna Miralis Editor Ollie Huddleston Composer Samuel Sim Sound Recordist Sara Lima Producer, Cinematographer Kim Longinotto Interpreter, Associate Producer Samyuktha PC Contact for Women Make Movies: Kristen Fitzpatrick / [email protected] / 212‐925‐0606 Press Contact for Sundance Film Festival: Kathleen McInnis / k.mcinnis@see‐throughfilms.com / 310‐733‐9805 SALMA Synopsis Internationally‐acclaimed filmmaker Kim Longinotto (ROUGH AUNTIES, World Cinema Jury Prize in Documentary, Sundance 2009) returns to Sundance 2013 with the World Premiere of her new documentary. It’s the remarkable story of a woman who defies her village to become the legendary activist, politician and poet SALMA. When Salma reached puberty, her parents locked her away from the world. She spent nine years trapped in one small room. Millions of young girls endure the same sort of fate, but Salma refused to let the long years of imprisonment break her spirit. Using hoarded scrap paper, she managed to smuggle out poems that expressed her hidden anger and pain. The poems scandalized her community but inspired readers all over South India. Twenty‐five years later, Salma’s brave defiance is a rare beacon of hope. Like an unfolding detective story, this moving, passionate film charts the transformation of a frightened, isolated young girl into an unlikely hero. Tamil with English subtitles, 2013, 90 minutes, color, United Kingdom/India SALMA Kim Longinotto, Director / Brief Bio One of the foremost documentary filmmakers working today, Kim Longinotto is renowned for filming women’s stories. Longinotto made her first film, PRIDE OF PLACE, a critical look at her all‐girls' boarding school, while she studied at England's National Film School. THEATRE GIRLS, shot in a hostel for homeless women, followed. Longinotto's films have tackled a wide range of subjects, from an array of surprising and formidable Japanese women to a divorce court in Iran. She won a Peabody Award and the Cannes Film Festival's prestigious Prix Art et Essai for SISTERS IN LAW, set in Kumba, Cameroon; and a Special Jury Prize at the International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam, for HOLD ME TIGHT, LET ME GO which was set in a school for disturbed children IN OXFORSHIRE. Longinotto’s two most recent films are ROUGH AUNTIES (Sundance 2009 World Cinema Jury Prize in Documentary) and PINK SARIS (Sheffield Doc Fest Special Jury Prize). Her new film, SALMA (2013), will World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY 2013 SALMA 2010 PINK SARIS 2009 ROUGH AUNTIES 2007 HOLD ME TIGHT, LET ME GO 2005 SISTERS IN LAW 2002 THE DAY I WILL NEVER FORGET 2001 RUNAWAY 2000 GAEA GIRLS 1998 DIVORCE IRANIAN STYLE 1995 SHINJUKU BOYS 1993 DREAM GIRLS 1992 THE GOOD WIFE OF TOKYO 1990 HIDDEN FACES 1989 EAT THE KIMONO 1978 THEATRE GIRLS 1976 PRIDE OF PLACE Kim Longinotto, Director selected quotes on the making of the film, SALMA Q How did you first find out about Salma? A I was in a seminar at a Film Festival in Delhi and a woman, Urvashi Butalia, told a group of us about Salma. It was such an inspiring and unusual story that I knew immediately that I really wanted to make a film about her. What seemed amazing about the story, and I still can't quite believe we've actually done it, is that it starts by describing the fate of millions of women all over the world and not many women escape it and manage to tell the tale. It's a kind of legend ‐ this woman who is locked away in a tiny room for 9 years , then gets married and still isn't allowed out ‐ who then becomes an activist, a politician, trying to help other women in her community and also a famous poet. It's an amazing story. Q So what did you do then? A I wrote to Salma. I emailed her. I said, "I've heard your story from Urvashi, I think it would be really good if we could make a film together about your life." I got an email back almost immediately. "When do you want to come?" She sounded so open and warm. Q So after Salma said "Yes, I'll do it" and Urvashi said "That'll be great", did you talk to Channel 4? A Yes, that was the next thing. I went to Hamish Mykura at Channel 4. And the process took ages. His new assistant didn't pass on any of my emails. And then he was in the middle of leaving so he had lots of other things to do. We'd met and he'd said "Ok, let's do the film" and then I didn't hear anything from him for weeks and weeks. I didn't want to hassle him. I thought he'd changed his mind about it. I'd lie awake wondering what I should do. I sent so may emails. In the end I called him & he sounded surprised. He said "I did mean it, I didn't get your emails." And I think it was just the day before he left the Channel that he was able to start off the commission and get it into the system. So I was really lucky. I got it all going just in time. And then, because it had taken so long to get it all sorted out, by the time I turned up, Salma didn't have the job any more. I haven't made a film before where nothing happens, where there isn't a central drama in the film. I'd met her translator, Lakshsmi Holstrom, in London just before leaving. She told me about Salma losing the job, and she said that it would be hard to make a film as Salma was just living alone in Chennai. The political party which had given her the job was now out of power Q Did you plan out with Salma what the shape of the film was going to be? A No I realised very quickly that it was going to have to be a completely different kind of film than I usually make. It was going to be a film about memories and dreams. A film about what Salma was thinking, rather than what she was doing. It would have to be a subtle layered film. There were no battles and set‐backs to film. No confrontations—only Salma, coming to terms with her past, and letting the audience right in to her world. The drama of the film wasn't there to film: it was there to be uncovered. Q I remember you often say to me that when you get to a new place and everyone is rushing about doing their own thing and you think "How am I going to find a story in the middle of this, so much is going on?" How did you figure out what the story was going to be? A I had to figure out how to tell a very personal, internal story, which had all happened in the past and make it come to life. I knew I couldn't do it the normal way. We were going to have to film interviews. There was no way round it. We would turn up at her flat when she wanted and sit around, maybe film a bit in the kitchen, her chatting to her sister. Little, everyday things…sweeping up…bits and pieces. Not much. Then after about a week, Salma decided to tell us things. But, like this, you have to trust the translator and work very closely. You have to keep talking to each other about things you want to film, things to look out for. So Samyuktha (the translator) had already told Salma that we needed to cover the important phases of her life. That is: reaching puberty, being locked up, getting married, smuggling the poems out, the books being published, getting elected, and leaving home. Salma knew this too. She was making the film with us. She knew what she wanted to say. She knew what was crucial. We were working as a team of 4. She wanted the story told as much as we wanted to tell it. It wasn't like we'd ask her to tell us something. She would decide when to talk and we would film it. She was the protagonist. It was a real collaboration. Q So what's the challenge of doing that sort of film? A I always thought that the action, observational films are harder because you have to be so alert & capture events as they happen. But they're just challenging in different ways. With this one the challenge is to do justice to the story and make it compelling to watch. You have to invent ways of using images. You can't just have the dialogue. You have to find the emotion and really take the audience into someone's life. Take them back there and help them re‐live it. Q Do you mean how someone appears in the frame of the film? A No, I mean like with what Ollie (Ollie Huddeston, Screenwriter/Editor) did when Salma is talking about her childhood. She starts telling us about how frightened her mother always was; how her father would always shout at her –this as she's cooking with her mum. Then we cut to her father. He looks straight at us for a while and then he says "She's too clever. She condemns us".