We recently connected with Mihika Das and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Mihika thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

“Handwoven” is a documentary about Nikyle Begay, a non-binary Navajo shepherd & weaver from Ganado, Arizona. It is one of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on as a cinematographer.

When I first spoke to Nikyle, I could tell how much they had on their mind and what they wanted the world to know about their experience. Making the documentary pushed me as a filmmaker and storyteller, both physically and emotionally. It was a crash course in making a documentary and while there were many nay-sayers in the early days of it’s inception, we stuck it out. Nikyle’s story has travelled to many film festivals across the country and even internationally. It goes to show that when you believe in something enough, it does resonate.

Being a narrative storyteller, we take a lot for granted. Whether it’s the fact that people are comfortable with a camera in their face, how you know exactly when to hit record and what you’ll hear back on video. I’m grateful to them for trusting us and allowing us to share their story with the world.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a cinematographer born and raised in Mumbai, currently based in Los Angeles. I knew I was meant to work in film from the get-go. Some of the best advice I received while pursuing the arts was to try my hand at all of it to see what would stick. Filmmaking is a vast industry, but I’ve found most joy in creating images and capturing moments from script to screen. With the ever-increasing number of films and television, I find a great joy in being inspired by traditional art. Growing up, our family holiday itineraries always had museums in them. I’d like to think the reason we resonate with these images; the reason we recreate them is they in turn capture the human condition seamlessly. Ultimately, my goal as a filmmaker is to tell stories with heart.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I was always under the impression that sharing what I thought was beneficial to the larger conversation. However, when I first started working in the field of cinematography I couldn’t be proven more wrong. The nature of a film set is that it can be extremely volatile. There is constantly work being done by different departments in service of the same goal. That means many cogs are in motion. After putting my foot in my mouth on day one working on a job and other embarrassing moments that live rent free in my mind. I learnt it is far more valuable to have your ears and eyes open on a film set than adding to a conversation.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I consider myself very lucky to have very supportive parents all while always being the “smart child who doesn’t apply herself”. The way the education system and society at large has had a shift in its grasp of what is considered to be success. New career avenues are more easily accepted with ever-changing technology. In my opinion, to really support artists, the simplest thing society can do is start the conversation early. No child should feel inadequate simply because they aren’t good in the fields of math and science, I say this as someone who never made the best grades – always adequate but nothing to write home about. No budding artist can thrive if they are made to question what they love doing, especially if it’s a bad test score in a subject you are less inclined to. Excelling in the arts is just as important as it is to perform academically and should be recognized early on. Go to the movies, take that pottery class, teach your children different dance forms – it starts small and snowballs into a large part of this life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mihikadas.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mihika
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mihika-das-c35

Image Credits

Photo Credits: Rutvij Reddy Seelam and Chaewon Suh

Stills from Handwoven