Kirthi Nath makes films that seem spun from dreams. As an award winning independent South Asian filmmaker, Kirthi has established a body of creative work that fluidly straddle genres, occupying a fertile hybrid landscape of cultural poetics, experimentalism, and hybrid narrative. Tactile and dreamlike, her films explore female subjectivity, memory, desire, spirituality and racial and sexual identities.

As an active member in the art community, Kirth has appeared on several panels and served as guest juror in film festivals. Her curational work further reflects her interest in promoting women, people of color, youth and queer perspectives.

In addition to fillmmaking, Kirthi also works as an educator. Teaching video to marginalized youth communities, she explores ways to empower young people to become both producer and audience; to understand genre and go beyond it.

Kismot: The narrative of your films unfold more like poetry than linear story-telling. Why do you choose this approach in your films?

Kirthi Nath: Poetic…neat that you noticed this! One answer would be to share that I started writing poetry and short fiction/prose at a very young age (12) and more formally in college studied writing. I have a creative writing minor after all. Fanny Howe has been a huge influence on me- because of her prose books and non-fiction (she is a poet also), but more so because of her humbleness and kindness. She was my mentor when I was at grad school, and one of her colleagues once said of her, she writes even greeting cards with grace. Fanny’s prose is like poetry, even when it is “prose”.

Before I ever made a film, I wrote stories and poems, and I took pictures with an old school canon AL-1. (given to me from Gayathri auntie).

And then when I started making films, I studied all kinds of films, I tried many forms, and was inspired by all kinds of films. Personally for my own expression, I am drawn to hybrid forms of telling stories.

Also, perhaps most telling – the poetic is my refuge because the traditionally narrative cannot hold the kind of story I want to tell, the kind of story I want to share. 

Why poetic? Because, I want to share stories about experiences, about emotions. Emotions and experiences that you and I both know- what home means, of growing up, of letting go, of questioning faith, of hope, of insecurity…emotions known and complex, subjective and personal. To express this, I am drawn to the senses, so I tell the story in visuals, sound, the layers that open up in film via editing and rhythm -  to open up to touch and feeling (and smell).

Someone once told me, “at the center of a good story is that thing which can not be told”. When I want to express my love for someone, as graced as I am with articulation, it is not with words I can ever express, but with gestures, with film.

Thus, the poetic. It is the world I live in. Thus, the world I tell my films with. Which often times has words.

This said, I am working on a new screenplay which will be “traditional” in terms of a fiction and documentary component - main characters, actors, the whole gamut. I trust, it will be poetic. Thanks for noticing.

K: What are the biggest challenges you face in bringing a film from concept to screen?

N: I am gratefully not without inspiration, but of late, without time, space and concentration to dive deep and fall in love with my film, life distracts me. I am thankful that every film I make draws me towards it, guides me- with an image, a sound, a concept/idea that I build the world from. If I was the kind of film teacher/mentor that I was to others to myself, that would be great. Over the years, something happened and I lost my self-discipline, and distracted myself and gave to others. But now I have time to feel, and re-balance, I need to re-learn the habit to spend time on my own films and be my own teacher. So, I am re-learning how to spend time with and for my own filmmaking. The biggest challenge is getting started, staying focused and having concentrated time and space. A residency sounds so dreamy right now…

K: Who do you count as important influences in your work as a filmmaker?

N: Not fair, this is like asking a filmmaker what her favorite film is! Ok, one answer is life is my greatest teacher…being in the now, going through the process.

And if you insist on a list: My mom, brother, yes- even my dad, Gayathri Auntie, my entire family, Fanny Howe, Virginia Woolf, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Renee Gladman, Lynn Hejinian, Abbas Kiarostami (all films), Mosen Maklhabhaf (all films), Issaac Julien’s Looking for Langston, Rea Tijeria’s History and Memory, Saddie Benning (all films), Red, Blue and La Double Vie de Véronique, Wong Kar Wei (all films), Carrie Mae Williams, Diane Arbus, Mary Ellen Marks, Sophie Calle, Sleater Kinney, the Bay Area Video Coalition, Lynette Wallworth, Kathy Geritz, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., the world news, sunshine, yoga, meditation, my meditation teachers: Howard Cohen, Eugene Cash, Andrea Fella, Pamela Weiss, Sivananda, Visnu, Buddha, Maria Stanford, Selby, Lisa, Jessie, Vero, the way the cherry blossoms bloom in spring. Anyone I every meet, ever story I hear.

K: You're currently working on a new film. What was the inspiration for this film?

N: I am actually working on a few films right now, such is the life of an interdisciplinary filmmaker!

One film, Trusting Visnu (working title) is about self-acceptance and is part of my series of experimental documentaries about spirituality. I have been making films about spirituality for almost 8 years now. Not like a single experience opens up the doors of spiritual exploration, but perhaps meditation and yoga have been my guides. In the series, the film before, Flying, is about faith- and not having it, seeking it and not sure if it out there, and the film after, Embrace It,  is about embracing hope. So, the film in between is about self-acceptance. All the films are stand alone films, but together, I hope travel an arc of experience for the viewer. A little teaser about Trusting Visnu …I was in Guatemala 2 1/2 years ago, felt the pull of Lake Atitlan and so the story begins…

The other two films I am working on are a little departure from my known signature poetic experimental documentaries, and actually more in line with the kind of films I have been producing these last several years.

Side by Side: What we say. What we do. What we'll share. Side by Side. It is a participatory documentary about living in a post-Obama time and as the title says, about what people dream about and are willing to bring to the table. This is also a participatory doc and inspired by my collaboration with filmmaker and good friend Justina Cross and my growing interest in new media filmmaking tools.

Stanley Roach (working title) is about Stanley who at age 64 was deported from the US back to Guyana (he was a US legal resident when deported and left his home country at age 16!). This film looks at deportation and how current US immigration and deportation policies tear families apart. I am the editor for this video and I was drawn to this project because of the injustice and sadness of the rise in deportation of people of color from developing nations since 9/11. As I continue to edit this film, I am learning a lot about immigration and deportation policy, and also, Stanley being deported means he can’t be with his family and his children will have to grow up without a father. My inspiration- so many things, but - I grew up without a father who left by choice, and Stanley was made to leave by force. However it happens, I know how devastating this can be for a child, so I am inspired to tell this story in the hopes it can be one of many to help change certain deportation policies, in particular the “fix 1996” campaign- which deals with anti-immigration laws passed in 1996 which lump certain deportees into a single group, regardless of charge and circumstance and prohibits the judge from hearing the whole story and being able to exercise judicial discretion.

K: What advice do you have for aspiring filmmakers?

N: If you want to be a filmmaker, you need to believe you are a filmmaker. Repeat to yourself and then to others three times, “I am a filmmaker”. It is almost real, but you need to believe in yourself, your passion and then let it guide you. Always.

Also, feel out and learn about storytelling (traditional and rule breaking), find a mentor you admire (whether in person or from admiration distance living or dead - filmmakers/artists/writers/world history- read everything about them) and always, always take risks.

 A great filmmaker takes risks to listen to and learn her/his style and then builds from there. Other secrets to being a successful filmmaker- always be humble, work hard, be kind and help your fellow friend.

Other tips: seek out resources around you. Take classes. Some cost money, some are free, some are google-able if you have discipline to read.