Megan Mylan interview
By Robert Levin
Special to amNewYork
• "Smile Pinki" that premieres on HBO tomorrow night at 7 p.m.
Before she made “Smile Pinki” documentarian Megan Mylan related to cleft palates in the same way most of us probable have. She’d feel sympathy for the victims featured in those omnipresent magazine ads soliciting help, before turning the page and moving on. Yet, after being approached by The Smile Train, the largest international cleft lip/palate charity, and asked to film the efforts of an Indian hospital in Benares devoted to repairing them, she found herself drawn to a central truth: one simple operation is all it takes for cleft palate victims to be granted a normal life.
The resulting film, which focuses on five-year-old Pinki and 11-year-old Ghutaru as they travel to the hospital to receive the operation, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short at this year’s Oscars. It premieres on HBO Wednesday at 7 p.m.
amNewYork spoke to Mylan about the project.
What specifically inspired you to make a film about clefts?
[I was attracted] once I realized how common clefts were, how far beyond cosmetic it is, how devastating a person’s social ostracism is, [which is] probably the heaviest thing, but there’s also severe speech impairment, nutrition and stuff, and then how totally curable it is. I thought the [Smile Train] model was awfully smart, the idea of supporting [local] doctors around the world rather than funding American [doctors]. Not that there’s anything wrong, I think it’s great when people go off to volunteer, but it was more of that they saw a problem, they saw how easily solved it was, and that there were all these people there who could do it.
What was the emotional draw?
Often there are issues that interest me that I think, “Oh I care about that, but I can’t figure out a good story in it,” because I really care about the storytelling too. It’s different hats. But I really love telling films in an observational, verité style, character driven and I think if I have a strategy it’s finding people who are at these transformative once-in-a-lifetime moments and this had all of that. So then when I started just letting this kick around in my head I thought, “This could be a really good story.”
What led you to Pinki?
Pinki jumped off the page for me. Her name, she has this sparkle in her eyes. One of the things that works so well for the film, at least for me, is she’s so clearly a beautiful little girl beforehand. You sort of can’t imagine why this little charmer would have any difficulties whatsoever. [The social worker I’d been working with] had already mentioned that she seemed especially closer to her father, so that was sort of appealing. And Ghutaru was the same way.
You brought Pinki and her father to the Oscars. What was that experience like for them?
Both Pinki and Ghutaru are doing great. They’re both still in school. Pinki ended up coming with her dad and the doctor and I’m sure her little reality has been [significantly changed] after that. She and her dad, too, who I think was 27 when we were filming, had never been to town even. They live with no electricity, no running water, they’ve never seen a movie, so this was a really intense experience, just going to town and having this weird film crew filming them…[At the Oscars] she was sitting with me down on the floor and then I had extra tickets. My parents were up [in the balcony] and her dad was up with my parents. Then a couple commercial breaks in I saw her going, we’d explained [how big the Kodak Theatre is], but [she looked shocked]. You sort of go in low and you don’t realize everything’s behind you until you turn around. She just had this look on her face and I thought, “This is silly.” She’s little, she’s eight now, she should be with her dad. So I texted my editor, who was up there too, and said, “You’ve gotta come down and get her.” She went up and she was actually asleep on her dad’s lap by the time our award was announced. But he woke her up and the “Slumdog Millionaire” kids were up where they were sitting too, and they came over. It was really nice, but it was really intense.
