It’s hard to believe there’s less than a week left in Milwaukee’s Film Fest, but there’s still plenty to see — including more local films.
The Milwaukee Show II is a showcase of local filmmakers and stories that you won’t see anywhere else. It's Monday, April 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Oriental Theater.
One of the directors sharing her work this year is a Milwaukee Film veteran: Red Crane Film’s Laj Waghray.
Her new film debuting April 27 is called "In Shelter of Birds." It's about Anand, a deaf photographer, poet and conservation advocate in India.
Whagray spoke with WUWM’s Jimmy Gutierrez about the film.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
WUWM: I want to ask about Anand. Where did you find him and why did you want to center this project around him?
Laj Waghray: I found him when I was researching the larger story of saving bird habitats. Growing up in Hyderabad [India], I saw urbanization happening — the loss of lakes, and lakes being taken over by people who are building. So I was covering a larger story and met a lot of interesting people, who were doing some good work…and people were telling me, ‘You have to meet Anand,’ because he was called the bird man. And I'm like, ‘Who is this bird man?’
And then slowly, through word of mouth, I got to know about his work. Then I met him, spent two or three days with him to kind of see what he does. And basically he goes to places and takes a lot of photographs of the habitat and the birds. And he also writes poetry.
So for me, [I wanted to know] how is it that he connects to nature and birds and spending time with them? You realize it's visual, of course, but also because he documents them in a specific way. He sees habitat loss and preserving through his photography, preserving those kinds of spaces for birds.
This is another Milwaukee Film Fest release for you. What does it mean to share work at the Milwaukee Film Fest?
It’s always very exciting to be part of the Milwaukee Film Festival. I've been in the festival before, and just the fact that the community shows up for you, supports you — because filmmaking is really hard and long work. It's tedious at times.
So when you see your friends show up and your community sort of supports you, it's very rewarding. It gives you momentum to keep going and to engage all these audiences in a conversation that you've been having with your small team or with yourself for all this period of time, to kind of open it up to a larger group of people. It’s always very exciting and very rewarding.
Milwaukee Film is a financial supporter of WUWM.
