ABOUT THE FILMAKERS

DEEPA MEHTA ( Director & Screenwriter)

Deepa Mehta was born in India and received a degree in philosophy from the University of New Delhi.

In 1991, Mehta produced and directed her first feature film Sam & Me, the poignant story of an unlikely friendship between two outcasts who form a deep and permanent bond despite the fact that neither is welcome in the other's world. Sam & Me won the very first Honorable Mention by the Critics in the prestigious Camera D'Or category in the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.

In 1992, she directed a one-hour episode of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, (the adventures of Indiana Jones as a boy) produced by George Lucas for ABC television. "Benares" was filmed on location in Benares, India.

In 1993, Mehta directed her second feature film, Camilla, a Canadian / UK co-production starring (the late) Jessica Tandy and Bridget Fonda. Other cast members included Elias Koteas, Maury Chaykin, Graham Greene and Hume Cronyn. It was shot on location in Toronto, Ontario and Savannah, Georgia. Camilla had a worldwide release early in 1995.

Mehta directed the final episode of George Lucas' Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in 1994. “Travels with Father” was shot on location in Prague, C.R. and Greece.

Fire , Mehta's third feature film, based on an original screenplay, was written, directed and produced by Mehta. Fire opened the Perspective Canada Program at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival, where it tied with Fly Away Home for the Air Canada People’s Choice Award. It was one of 29 films selected from over 1400 entries, worldwide, for the prestigious New York Film Festival. At the Vancouver International Film Festival, Fire won the Federal Express Award for Best Canadian Film as chosen by the audience. At the Chicago International Film Festival, it won two Silver Hugo Awards for Best Direction and Best Actress. In Mannheim, Fire won the Jury Award and in Paris, it was voted Favorite Foreign Film. Fire has currently been sold to 30 countries and had its North American release on August 22, 1997, followed by releases in Europe, Australia and India in September 1997.

Earth , based on Bapsi Sidhwa's critically acclaimed novel, “Cracking India”, is the second film in Mehta's trilogy of the elements, Fire, Earth and Water. Earth was shot in New Delhi, India, in January of 1998. It had its World Premiere as a Special Presentation at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival where it was received with a standing ovation and critical acclaim. Earth won the Prix Premiere du Public at the Festival du film Asiatique de Deauville, France in March 1999 and the Critics' Award at the Schermi d'Amore International Film Festival, Italy, in April of the same year. Currently, Earth has been sold to 22 countries and was selected by the Film Federation of India as India's nomination for consideration for an Academy Award in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.

Her film, Bollywood Hollywood , opened the Perspective Canada Program at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival, and has remained in the top 10 grossing English movies since its Canadian opening on October 25, 2002. In 2003, Mehta co-wrote and directed Republic of Love, based on the novel of the same title by the world-renowned author, Carol Shields, starring Bruce Greenwood and Amelia Fox.,

In the same year, Mehta won the prestigious CineAsia “Best Director” Award - an acclaim awarded to Steven Spielberg in 2002.

Water , the third film in the “elements” trilogy, has recently been completed and will be released in the fall of 2005. Initially, the film was to be shot in India, but Hindu fundamentalist created riots, burnt the sets and issued death threats to the director and actors forcing the film to stop production in early 2000. The film was remounted and completed shooting in Sri Lanka in June 2004.

MARK BURTON (Executive Producer)

Mark Burton graduated from USC and has produced over 25 theatre productions in Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, and India. He has produced several Indian feature films including The Terrorist, directed by Santosh Sivan and presented by actor John Malkovich. The film screened at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals in 1999 and was released theatrically in 2000, garnering an Independent Spirit award nomination for best foreign film. Burton was the executive producer of Santosh Sivan's second feature, Asoka, which premiered at the 2001 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals. Burton's other films include Cherish, directed by Finn Taylor, which premiered at the 2002 Sundance film festival, and was released by Fine Line Features. Also, Richard Jobson's 16 Years of Alcohol, which screened at the 2003 Toronto film festival, the Locarno International Film Festival, and won a special commendation at 2003 Edinburgh Film Festival. It was nominated for six British Independent Film Awards, winning for best screenplay and best supporting actress. Burton also produced Bigger Than The Sky, released by MGM in 2005.

Most recently, Burton executive produced the third film in Deepa Mehta's elemental trilogy (Fire, Earth, Water). Burton's next project is Beautiful Ohio, a drama scripted by critically acclaimed novelist Ethan Canin which the author adapted from his short story "Batorsag and Szerelem." Academy Award-winning actor William Hurt has come aboard to star in the film, which will mark Emmy award-winning actor/director Chad Lowe's feature film directorial debut and begins shooting in the fall.

AJAY VIRMANI (E xecutive Producer)

Ajay Virmani has been active in the film industry, producing the Bollywood films Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi and International Khiladi. He was an executive producer and the main financier of Water in India when it was shut down. He also became an executive producer on Bollywood/Hollywood. He worked diligently with Hamilton and Mehta to put Water back together and assisted in its re-location to Sri Lanka.

Virmani has enjoyed a tremendous business career – as president and CEO of Canada's largest cargo airline, Cargojet – and truly defines the word "entrepreneur."

DOUG MANKOFF (Executive Producer)

In 1997 Doug Mankoff started Echo Lake Productions by raising a private equity fund to finance and produce independent films.  Since then, Echo Lake has financed and produced fifteen films. Mankoff executive produced David Riker’s La Ciudad, winner of awards at numerous film festivals including Havana (best foreign film), South-By-Southwest (best narrative film), Santa Barbara (best narrative film), and Taos (best feature).  Mankoff served as producer on Allison Anders’ Things Behind The Sun, which won a Peabody Award for its “searing exploration” of the consequences of rape.  Mankoff also executive produced Jill Sprecher’s Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, which became Sony Classics’ highest grossing film of 2002.  He executive produced Ed Solomon’s Levity, which was chosen as the opening night film of the 2003 Sundance Film Festival prior to being released by Sony Classics.  He produced The Big Empty, a comedy starring Jon Favreau which premiered at the 2003 AFI Film Festival prior to being released by Artisan Entertainment.  Most recently, Mankoff executive produced Deepa Mehta’s Water, which was selected as the opening film of the 2005 Toronto Film Festival.  Mankoff executive produced two other 2005 Toronto Film Festival selections: 12 And Holding, directed by Michael Cuesta and Tstotsi, directed by Gavin Hood.

Before founding Echo Lake, Mankoff worked for film financier and visionary Michael Nesmith managing Nesmith’s library of film and television properties.  Mankoff received a B.A. in History from Duke University and then attended the graduate film program at NYU.  He later received his MBA from Harvard.  In addition to his interest in Echo Lake, Mankoff owns CAMP TV Media, a production company he founded in 1986 to make videos for schools and summer camps around the country. A native of Dallas, Mankoff lives with his wife and daughters in Los Angeles.

GILES NUTTGENS (Director of Photography)

Giles Nuttgens joined the British Broadcasting Corporation in the UK in 1981 as assistant film cameraman, working worldwide on documentaries for the renowned Natural History Unit. At the age of 26 he became one of the youngest film cameramen ever in the BBC and over the next few years shot many documentaries on environmental and social issues, working in locations ranging from the Amazon rainforest to the depressed urban jungle of Glasgow. In 1989 he shot his first feature for Film Four International on location in India, a place that was to become a second home over the next decade. At the beginning of the 90s he started working for Lucasfilm on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles where he first met Deepa Mehta to shoot an episode about Krishnamurthy in “Benares” (Varanasi). For cinema he collaborated on Bandit Queen (1990) with Shekhar Kapur and Fire (1994) for Deepa Mehta, two films that caused great political upheaval in India (ironically cinemas were burnt down for projecting Fire). Alongside the continuing work for Lucasfilm, he shot various seasons of TV police shows for British television and several films for cinema including Earth for Deepa Mehta and worked as 2nd unit director of photography on Episode I of Star Wars.

In 2000 he met up with David Siegel and Scott McGehee and photographed The Deep End around Lake Tahoe in California for which he won the Cinematography Award at Sundance the following year.

2002 brought a new connection when Nuttgens photographed Young Adam starring Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton, the first of his films for David Mackenzie. Over the last two years he has finished off both Episodes II and III of Star Wars with George Lucas, Asylum starring Ian McKellen once again for director David Mackenzie, Bee Season starring Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche (both for release in the fall) and the third of Deepa Mehta’s elemental trilogy Water.

DILIP MEHTA (Production Designer)

Having reached the magical  age of 52 (by his account) Dilip still ponders whether it has been ‘worth it’.

From his first cover of TIME  at the tender  age of 24 (again by his account), to the miserable discotheques of Khabarovsk in Siberia, to the 87 member (numbers obviously play a vital role) Joint Family in Karnataka for German and French GEO - Dilip has pretty much ‘been there done that’.

As an editorial photographer  he has witnessed and recorded - he calls  himself a visual historian - a plethora of wide ranging events across the world.  His photo essays - incisive and often multilayered - have been published in magazines, books and  periodicals such as:
National Geographic, Geo, Life, Stern, Time Newsweek, The New York Times, Maclean’s, Figaro, Der Spiegel, Paris Match, Applied Arts, Chatelaine, Vanity Fair, New Yorker, Bunte, Merian, USA Today, The Atlanta Weekly, Liberation, LA Times, A Day in the Life of Canada, A Day in the Life of America, A Day in the Life of Spain, A Day in the Life of Italy, A Day in the Life of Australia, A Day in the Life of Thailand, A Day in the Life of China, A Day in the Life of Soviet Union.

Production Design for the feature film WATER was his first foray into work that he calls ‘non brain-damaging’.

MYCHAEL DANNA (Music Composer)

Mychael Danna has been scoring films since his 1987 feature debut for Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing, a score which earned Danna the first of his eleven Canadian film award nominations. Mychael is recognized as one of the pioneers of combining non-Western sound sources with orchestral and electronic minimalism in the world of film music. This reputation has led him to work with such acclaimed directors as Atom Egoyan, Scott Hicks, Ang Lee, Gillies MacKinnon, James Mangold, Mira Nair, Billy Ray, Joel Schumacher, and Denzel Washington.

He studied music composition at the University of Toronto, winning there the Glenn Gould Composition Scholarship in 1985. Mychael also served for five years as composer-in-residence at the McLaughlin Planetarium in Toronto (1987-1992). Works for dance include music for Dead Souls (Carbone Quatorze Dance Company, directed by Gilles Maheu 1996), and a score for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Gita Govinda (2001) based on the 1000-year-old classical Indian erotic poem, with choreographer Nina Menon.

Recent projects include Istvan Szabo's Being Julia, Deepa Mehta's Water, Atom Egoyan's Where The Truth Lies and Terry Gilliam's Tideland.