Mikail Chowdhury is an Emmy nominated producer, award-winning filmmaker, and playwright whose work has been selected for multiple film festivals including the Oscar Qualifying Slamdance, Outfest LA, Reel Sisters of the Diaspora, and New Orleans, and also screened at the British Film Institute (BFI). His focus is on engaging audiences and featuring underrepresented communities in front of and behind the camera. He was a Writer and Producer of Aimee Victoria a deaf queer love story featuring Natasha Ofili (Netflix’s The Politician, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales) and Stephanie Nogueras (The Good Fight, Grimm). We caught up to discuss his career and recent projects.
Mikail Chowdhury, Thank you for agreeing to catch up with Occhi Magazine. Congratulations on your career to date. For readers who are unfamiliar with you, how did you get into the film industry?
Thank you so much for inviting me to chat, I had a random start because I didn’t study film or theatre. I started in music and while doing a law degree I fell in with the University of Dundee theatre crowd. I started with improv, a bit of acting, then writing and directing. After some success with my first play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, I decided to turn it into a feature film.
And I had ZERO idea what I was doing – which was good because I never would have got it finished if I had known the rules. I was literally sneaking into the local art college basement early in the morning and late at night to use their editing computers, it was a bonkers and brilliant experience.
That film taught me a lot and got me started. Over the years I have veered between theatre and film.
Who are your biggest influences?
At a career level, I think Ava DuVernay is a tremendous role model, especially for someone like me who comes from a diverse background and did not train in the film industry. Riz Ahmed is doing brilliant stuff for Muslim filmmakers and his Oscar-Winning movie, The Long Goodbye, was powerful and bold.
I am a huge fan of David Lynch, although my work is not like his stylistically, I respect his commitment and the fact that he is widely acknowledged to be very respectful to his team. I also think he handles exposition incredibly well.
This year Troy Kotsur won an Oscar for best supporting actor in the film Coda. You Co-Wrote and Produced the short film ‘Aimee Victoria’ with a deaf cast and Produced ‘The Multi’ with a majority of deaf cast and crew. Please tell us more about the film, and your experience working on set. Secondly, with the success of Coda, do you think Hollywood’s focus on indie films and social themes is changing?
Troy Kotsur delivered an extraordinary performance, it was wonderful to see him recognized and a great thing for indie film to see a low-budget movie take Best Picture.
For Aimee Victoria, we were shooting completely remotely – as a quick background, during the height of lockdown in 2020 I had the idea to create a short-form series called The Myth of Control and was lucky enough to have an absurdly talented group of people come onboard. We filmed the series using my wife’s iPhone (I definitely do not deserve to be married to her – in case you are wondering) which we sent with a tripod and mic to each actor in turn.
The writers, directors, technical supervisors, wardrobe, and even hair and make-up were all remote using video calls – the actors filmed themselves in their own homes.
Aimee Victoria started as one of the episodes and to promote the series we recut it into a short film for the festival circuit. It was an incredible experience and all credit goes to our team which included the Director, Chrystee Pharris (in her directorial debut), my fellow Producer Sana Soni, our writer Hannah Harmison and so many more people that I cannot list them all here.
We cast Stephanie Nogueras (Killing It, The Good Fight, Grimm) and Natasha Ofili (The Politician, Spider-Man: Miles Morales) who are both deaf and did a fantastic job as they had to act but also run the set at home. For such a random small production, it has been in over 25 festivals including two Oscar Qualifiers (Cleveland International and Reel Sister of the Diaspora), and won two awards.
The Multi was created by Natasha Ofili, she wrote, produced, and starred in it – we shot it semi-remotely in between lockdowns in 2021 so the Director Interpreters and some other crew were remote to make sure we stayed within Covid guidelines.
Again, all credit goes to the team who were just incredibly patient, professional, and committed. There is no excuse to not hire people based on a disability, there is tremendous talent out there being overlooked.
To your second point about Hollywood and social themes, the industry is typically afraid to take a chance on something until it has been proven – there were not many female-led comedies until Bridesmaids proved that audiences would turn out to see them. Similarly, I hope Coda helps to prove that audiences will not be turned off by seeing disabled characters.
I think things are moving in the right direction, but it will take more time – ultimately, if the film is really good, people will want to see it. Irrespective of the cast/team/themes.
Name one experience you’ve had in this industry that has significantly shaped your appreciation of filmmaking?
I am a big collaborator, I do not believe in the concept of the ‘auteur’ or singular genius behind a film, it is an art form that requires a brilliant team. On ‘The Myth of Control’ we had the most extraordinary team, I watched people work together so openly and with no ego, they were happy to create and gave so much of themselves to a project that was really a crazy idea.
It made me appreciate just how important passion and respect are in your entire team. It is easy to talk a good game about working hard, but when things get tough then you can see who is committed to getting the film finished and there is nothing better than working with those kinds of people.
You produced the award-winning short film Oak Trees and short films, ‘Nimzo’ (which premiered at Outfest in LA), Van Sanctuary (official selection for CAAMS and the New Orleans Film Festival), and Our Darkest Hour. Of the many accolades received, what is your proudest achievement as a filmmaker, and why?
I was very lucky that Sameer Gardezi (Hot Mess Holiday, Modern Family, East of La Brea) approached me to work on these films. I was very proud of the fact that we could make projects led by people from different backgrounds, e.g. Nimzo was a majority LGBTQIA team, Our Darkest Hour was mainly South Asian, and so on.
But Aimee Victoria remains my proudest project, that was something borne out of a crazy time, we broke a lot of the norms by making a deaf queer love story with women of color, and audiences across all spectrums have reacted really positively. Again, all credit goes to the team behind it.
As an Emmy nominated producer and award-winning Director, Writer, and playwright, do you find it easier to collaborate and garner support for your projects?
People tend to take me more seriously, but in all honesty, the greatest thing on my side was the fact that I made something. If anyone asks for my advice I am very honest that I have no idea what I am doing. But I can say that the power of making something is huge.
I love working with other people, and anyone who has had the initiative and determination to make a thing deserves credit and will naturally be more appealing as a collaborator because they have proven that they can get it done.
To be clear, it doesn’t matter to me what it is – I am working with someone who produced a two-minute short film during the pandemic, they put it out into the world and people are reaching out to them now. I have people reach out who have written their first full script, that’s a huge achievement.
So if there is one aspect that helps me find collaborators, it is simply the fact that I have made something.
What projects are you currently working on?
I am developing Aimee Victoria into a feature film, it is early days but very excited to build that. I am attached to direct a feature being written by Marcos James of GAME OF THRONES and produced by Traci Rhone. My current project is Good Girls Get Fed– a short thriller written, directed, and starring Kelly Lou Dennis with a majority female team. That will be coming out later this year.
Where can our readers find out more about you and your projects? Note: please provide website and social media links.
Instagram: @midnightcaller___
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