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The distribution deal was done with Revolver but they wanted some minor cuts to the film, which I
was unhappy about... They went ahead with it without ever discussing it with me directly."
 Director Menhaj Huda is best known for his hit feature film Kidulthood (2006) which became a cult flick amongst teenagers across the UK and went on to win The Douglas Hickox Award at the British Independent Film Awards in 2006. As part of a series of articles on Netribution from Film and Festivals Magazine, Menhaj meets Editor Vicki Psarias and explains how he got to shoot Kidulthood on 35mm for under a million, what went on behind the scenes, and why he feels let down by the British film industry.
You're known best as the director for Kidulthood, but how did you start your career?
I
never set out to be a director - I always wanted to be an editor and
after university, that's where I started. I was working with music
videos and I pitched an idea for a dance music show called Hypnosis to
Channel 4, which they made into a series that I directed. I'd never
been to film school so that was an education in itself. From that, I
spent the following five years directing music videos, music shows and
youth programmes.
What did you study at university?
Engineering.
I have a very technical mind so I love everything equipment wise and
mechanical. Most crews are quite surprised by how much I know and
understand about the technical side of filmmaking. Ultimately, they're
all machines whether it's a camera or an edit suite and if you
understand how machines work, you can cut corners and do things most
people don't learn how to do. I've always been very confident about
computers and once you have that knowledge, you can extend it and be
very creative.
You
work a lot with eminent cinematographer Brian Tufano, who shot
Kidulthood. If you're very technical, does that ever cross into his
area?
It
actually saves a lot of time as I can be very specific and say to
Brian, ‘I want this particular lens' or ‘I want that shutter speed'.
Other directors, however, come from different, more theatrical
backgrounds or are speaking more artistically about what they want, and
it's the DP's job to translate that into visuals. I know exactly what I
want and how that can be done.
What was your first taste of drama?
I
made a short in 1998 called Jump Boy that was a precursor to
Kidulthood. It was about a group of Asian kids leaving school for the
day, all talking the talk and trying to be ‘gangsters'. One of the
characters, Baggy, admires and simulates black American street culture
- then three older, black kids turn up and mug Baggy and beat him up.
Sounds like you explored a controversial issue.
Jump
Boy is about cultural identity and race but explores it in a really
honest, shocking way. The beauty of it was, when I started showing it
around the world, people started taking from it what was relevant to
their own lives. It had a hip hop soundtrack, very urban settings,
walls full of graffiti and raw, real street language, which was
something no one had ever seen before. You can watch the film at http://www.filmfour.co.uk/
You
then moved into television drama and directed the second series of
Queer As Folk. Did you do any research before directing this drama that
focuses on gay characters in Manchester?
It
was a pretty foreign world to me but you just have to trust the writer
and that's what I always say - as a director you don't have to know
that world. You have to have a sense of it, but if someone else is
writing it and they know the world, you just have to tune into them.
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Queer As Folk includes scenes of a sexual nature. How did you get the best out of the actors' performances?
With
Queer As Folk, the actors had already been cast; they'd done the first
series, so they knew each other and what they wanted to do. One thing
about actors is that you have to talk to them and tell them what you
want. They like to do stuff. They hate being left alone. These days, a
lot of directors don't talk to their actors, they just stand behind the
camera and speak to the crew and that's how you get a weak performance.
The
actors' performances in Kidulthood are particularly gritty and
incredibly natural. Would you say you are an actor's director rather
than a technical director, despite your background?
So
far, people who have seen my films have said the acting is very good,
and I put that down to my casting because I'm very, very thorough.
That's the key to it. If you get someone in an empty room with a scene
they've only had for a couple of days and they can make you laugh or
cry - you know they've got the part.
After
Queer As Folk you did various other projects including the television
feature Is Harry on the Boat? (2001) with Danny Dyer and Will Mellor.
Was it easy to get into features after these projects?
No,
it was tough actually. I made Is Harry on the Boat? thinking that would
be my first feature but unfortunately Sky Pictures went down and the
film was just tucked away on Sky One with ad breaks in July. It was a long road before I got to Kidulthood.
Kidulthood
is about a-day-in-the life of a group of troubled teenagers growing up
in West London and has been compared to cinema classics La Haine and A
Clockwork Orange for its graphic portrayal of drug use, violence and
sex. So how did you get involved with the film?
I'd
received a call from an actor I'd worked with previously, Ray Panthaki,
who recommended I take a look at a script by relative newcomer, writer
Noel Clarke. That script was Kidulthood - and it was brilliant.
What happened next?
I
optioned it for 18 months on the basis that I would not only direct it,
but I would produce it as well. We managed to get The Film Council to
want to make it with Film Four but after lots of re-writes and meetings
that I felt lacked any real direction, we lost all our backing. I had
no support. There were times when I just wanted to walk away.
At that point what kept you going? How did you manage to finance Kidulthood?
I
got lucky and came into some money which I invested in to the film. I
also met a producer, George Isaac, who put some money into the project
too. We eventually had a working budget of £650,000 - not the £800,000
I was aiming for, but enough. We had to defer the writer's fee, the
producer's fee, and some legal fees. We decided to shoot on 35mm and
finish on High Definition, so if the film was a complete pile of
rubbish we wouldn't be wasting money on getting a print.
So after a lot of trouble and toil, Kidulthood finally got made. How well did it do on the festival circuit?
We
entered it into Edinburgh and we failed to get in, we entered it into
Toronto and after we'd been told they loved the film, they said they
weren't going to programme it. We didn't get into Venice or Locarno. In
July 2005 I decided to just do a cast and crew screening, with family
and friends invited, and an audience of 750 - 800 people turned up! It
just went crazy. That was when the buzz really started.
Great - proof that word of mouth really does work. So, did a distributor then pick it up?
Actually,
the only distribution company that was there was Revolver. We were
incredibly excited by the audiences' feedback and we very quickly set
up another screening for more distribution companies. It was held in
the Empire Leicester Square; a packed house, loads of kids and was a fantastic
screening. The audience loved it. But no one from the distribution
companies were interested. Some people walked out. And that's when you
think, how much more does it have to be spelled out? The kids are here
and you can see their response - they love it.
But things ran smoother after the screening?
After
the screening, things took a strange turn. The distribution deal was
done with Revolver but they wanted some minor cuts to the film, which I
was unhappy about (as was Noel) because I didn't believe the film would
perform any differently with these cuts. They went ahead with it
without ever discussing it with me directly.
What were the cuts?
The
main cut is in the sequence where Trife, the lead, is by the river and
pulls out the purse that he's stolen from the woman earlier on in the
film - and the audience is left wondering why he does this.
In
my cut, Trife goes back and returns the purse to her. She invites him
to come in for a drink. She is really drunk and we find out her story;
that she is a widow, her husband recently died and she has no one. In
her drunken state she comes on to Trife but in a pivotal moment he
actually tells her how old he is and that he doesn't want sex with her.
This is a big moment in the film as he actually admits that he is just
a kid - a kid that's grown up too quickly.
But on the flipside, Revolver did distribute the film and Kidulthood got a DVD release. Have TV rights been bought?
Yes, the BBC has bought it.
And career wise, on the strength of Kidulthood, you recently won a
BIFA, the Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director. How does it
feel going through a journey of such turmoil to finally having your
work celebrated?
Considering
how little attention we got from the festivals it was great to get some
kind of recognition that we'd done a good job and that we'd made a good
film. The BIFAs was the only place we were ever going to get
recognition and I'm really pleased that they took note of Kidulthood
because it is the most independent film that's been made and come out
of the UK.
But the Dinard British Film Festival did give you Best Screenplay (2006).
It
did. But isn't it ironic that the first British film festival that
Kidulthood goes to is in France? And, up till now, Kidulthood has yet
to be screened at a festival in the UK.
Despite
losing your backing, you went on to make your film independently and
with great success. What's your advice for filmmakers passionate about
making their own independent films?
Don't
wait for years of development. Get your script right and try and raise
the money yourself. There are so many ways to get a film made and it
doesn't have to be the traditional route. Be strong and realistic about
what you want to achieve and don't take no for an answer.
More info at www.kidulthood.co.uk/
The follow up, Adulthood, from Kidulthood writer Noel Clarke, is released in June 08 by Pathe.
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