Graphic novels inspire silver screen storytelling

In the last decade cinemagoers have been hit with remakes of basically all the superheroes.

There’s been Batman, Spiderman, Iron Man, X men . . . the list goes on.

Hollywood has also turned to the darker graphic novels. Turning Frank Miller’s film noir comics into the successful Sin City.

For 2ser radio’s Final Draft I talked about the graphic novels that have made the journey from the page to the screen – starting with the comic book, V for Vendetta.

It’s 1997 in England and there has been a devastating nuclear war. The country is ruled by the voice of Fate and is listened in on and watched by what’s called the ears and the eyes. In the opening of this Orwellian drama we meet Evey Hammond a 16-year-old girl, who is rescued and then becomes friends with V – an anarchist in a Guy Fawkes mask.

What follows is political commentary on how a fascist regime can take control and what happens to people when they give away their freedom in exchange for what they see as safety. We see relationships fall apart, Nazi-style concentration camps and people basically losing their integrity.

When the film V for Vendetta came out in 2006 we were living in a post 911 world. There were horror stories about Guantanamo bay and new laws designed to protect us were stripping away civil liberties. The world dreamed up by Alan Moore and David Lloyd in the 1980s suddenly wasn’t so hard to imagine.

The movie is a slick production of the book and takes a lot of creative license. Moore famously distanced himself from the movie and requested that his name wasn’t listed in the credits. And you can see why, there are significant plot changes and central characters have been removed from the story altogether.

And yes, the film lacks the subtleties of the novel –it’s a little more, well, Hollywood. There are longer action scenes and less emphasis on what drives people to live under a repressive regime.

The film also builds on a sense of people power – while in the comic – V shows a greater disdain for the general public.

“You have encouraged these malicious incompetents who have made your working life a shambles. You have accepted without question their senseless orders. You could have stopped them . . . all you had to say was ‘no’. You have no spine. You have no pride.”

I found both the book and the movie to be pretty cheesy. But there is no denying that V makes for a charismatic and unique hero with a flair for the dramatics. This comes across extremely well on the big screen.

The French graphic novel Persepolis deals with very similar themes but steers away from the superhero style comic.

It’s the autobiography of Marjane Satrapi depicting her childhood and early adulthood in Iran during and after the Islamic revolution. She gives a unique perspective as the only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors.

We meet her as a child convinced that she is to be the next prophet. Then we follow her through the terrors of the revolution and on to Vienna where as a teenager she lives away from her family in order to receive a proper education.

Here she falls in love, grows up, battles with drugs, and even briefly becomes homeless. Although her story is remarkable, she is relatable and her sense of humour, strength, truthfulness and her lively imagination has you falling in love with her almost from the first page.

Persepolis is more emotionally poignant than V for Vendetta. You don’t feel like you’ve been whacked repeatedly over the head with a political or social message like you do when reading or watching V.

Like life there is tragedy and tears, mixed with humour and humanity.

The 2007 film is just as good.

Marjane co-directed the film with French comic artist Vincent Paronnaud. The film looks like the black and white illustrations have jumped straight from the page onto the screen.

The montages are particularly brilliant. In one Marjane rolls down hills in a state of bliss with her boyfriend Marcus. But once they’ve broken up these same scenes have him featured as a pimply, snot-eating, buck teethed boy reminiscent of the hunchback of Notre Dame.

Of course scenes have been shortened or lost in order to fit into a 90 minute film but Marjane is just as strong on screen.

Graphic novels rewrite superhero stereotype

 

In 2005, Wolfgang Bilsmer and Skye Ogden started Gestalt publishing in the hopes of showcasing talented Australian graphic artists and novelists.

Six years later the pair are now publishing 25 artists and novelists – including recent Academy Award winner Shaun Tan.

I caught up with Wolfgang to discuss the world of comics . . . and how there is more to graphic novels than superheroes and spandex.

Listen to the interview with Wolfgang on 2ser radio’s Final Draft show, aired April 4, 2011

Leading literary ladies

Whether it’s the eerily tragic Mrs Havisham, the vibrant Scarlet O’Hara or Capote’s Holly Golightly, we all have our favourite female characters.

In homage to memorable female characters and International Women’s Day, I caught up with two book lovers to discuss their favourite leading ladies – starting with their first loves to more recent discoveries.

 Here I am with 24-year-old Amy Prcevich

 Story aired on 2ser community radio Final Draft, March 7 2011

A new hope for India’s girls born into prostitution

For generations, prostitution has provided the only means of economic survival for some tribes in the Indian desert. Now, a handful of schools are teaching kids that a life outside the sex industry is possible.

Story aired Deutsche Welle Radio World in Progress, March 2,2011
Story published on Deutshce Welle Online, March 2, 2011

In India’s financial capital Mumbai, Pinkie has entertained the “richest to the poorest men” since she was 20 years old.

For 10 years, she sang and danced for lawyers, doctors and tradesman before leading them to a small bed in the corner of her one-room home.

“There are only one or two men we can enjoy. But we have to have sex with so many people how do we enjoy it? We are doing it for money, so it’s not a question of enjoyment,” she said.

Pinkie lives in Malwadi slum in the outer suburbs of Mumbai and insisted on anonymity while talking to Deutsche Welle. She is now retired but her three sisters and 16-year-old daughter continue to work in the sex industry to support her and the rest of their family.

Born into the sex industry

The women are from the Kanjar community – an ancient tribe in Rajasthan, which like the Nats have come to rely on prostitution for economical survival.

According to the Mumbai-based NGO Summitra Trust, more than 1,200 Nat and Kanjar women work in Malwadi’s sex industry, where they face the threat of imprisonment, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Before British colonisation, the tribes were entertainers for the ruling families. But when the British came their traditions were lost and they turned to prostitution out of economic necessity.

Now it’s just a matter of social condititioning, according to Surbhi Dayal, a researcher from Jawaharlal Nehru University who has been studying the communities’ family structure for almost a decade.

“If you see your mother who is a married woman doing household work from 4am until 11pm, and your aunt who is an unmarried sex worker always dressed up and able to fulfill whatever you ask of her because she has money, then definitely a girl is going to take up to prostitution not a married life,” Dayal said.

A family matter

While the men earn little money – occasionally working as their sisters’ or daughters’ pimps – the majority of women get married or become sex workers.

“They [the parents] decide around 10 to 12 years of age if a girl is quite talkative and attractive then she pursues sex work but if a girl is shy or she is not very good looking … she will get married,” Dayal said.

When Dayal first learnt about these practices she said she was indignant.

“I kept thinking, ‘How someone can do like this, how women can just go to prostitution? How men can just sit in the house pimping for sisters or daughters?’”

The answer, she said, was poverty.

Path out of poverty

Although Rajasthan attracts tourists with its grand palaces and colorful handiworks, it remains one of India’s poorest states.

Almost 40 percent of people are illiterate and the average income is just over one euro a day.

In contrast, prostitutes working in India’s big cities can make up to 80 euros ($110) a night.

But the extra income has come at a high price. The community faces intense social stigma and the majority of children remain uneducated, which leads to another generation of girls being forced into prostitution.

After witnessing the poor standard of local government schools and watching the pattern of prostitution repeat itself in the Nat and Kanjar communities in Alwar, social worker Nirvana Bodhisattva set up Nirvanavan Foundation.

The foundation, which opened in 2001, runs 12 schools, 10 of which cater specifically to the Nat and Kanjar communities, and provides free education to children aged between 5 and 10.

One of these modest schools is at Kalsara Bagh, a small village split by a highway that links Rajasthan to Delhi.

Along the road, women laze around on grass beds and plastic chairs waiting for customers. Most of these are truck drivers who will pay the equivalent of between 1 euro and 7 euros for time with the women.

New hopes

In the heart of this village, Bodhisattva and his team have set up a one-room school, which blends the community’s traditions of dance and song with Hindi, English and math lessons in order to maintain the students’ interest.

“We began with one school and at that time; we had two teachers and about 60 students,” Bodhisattva said. “Now we have about 520 children.”

Running the schools, however, remains a challenge. Lack of funds led to five schools temporarily closing and gaining the communities’ trust is an ongoing battle, Bodhisattva said.

“The community depends on that profession and the men live on the money that the women earn, so we are a threat,” he said.

A future outside of prostitution will not happen overnight, but a new future is slowly emerging, Bodhisattva said. A former female student is currently studying to become a doctor and several boys have gone on to mainstream schools.

The children now have aspirations, added Anju Singh Rajput, a teacher at the school.

“They are becoming aware of their education,” Rajput said. “They have a dream to become a teacher a doctor because they read about these things in the books. Now they even ask for homework.”

Did India’s astrologers predict this?

The action might take place in India, but at the heart of this next story is a question wondered all over the world: is astrology bunkum?

One Mumbai-based group believes it is, and that India’s many astrologists – not to mention palmologists, gemologists, and other practitioners of the predictive arts – are taking advantage of superstitious and often vulnerable clients.

Astrologers have been guiding Indians since the fifth century: helping them navigate marriages, illness and monsoon rains. Now the NGO Janhit Manch is petitioning the Bombay High Court to clamp down on the industry and on astrology advertising.

Listen to the full story here:

Aired on Deutsche Welle Radio World in Progress December 19, 2010

Aired on KBR68H Indonesia Radio, Asia Calling December 13, 2010

India’s Parsis Fight for Survival

Parsis have played an important cultural and economic role in India’s development. They are behind the giant multinational Tata Group, the national airline Air India and Mumbai’s famous Taj Palace Hotel. But despite their prosperity, the Parsis are facing extinction.

More than 1000 years before the birth of Christ, followers of the Zoroastrian faith were worshipping fire and preaching free will. But when their homeland Iran was attacked in the seventh century by Muslim invaders, they were massacred and persecuted. Many fled in search of religious freedom – and most landed on India’s shores, where they became known as Parsis.

Yet India’s last census in 2001 reported that there were less than 70,000 Parsis left.

Listen to my report on the Parsis’ fight for survival and why their demise is creating rifts within their community.

Story aired on Deutsche Welle Radio World in Progress on November 17, 2010

Also aired on KBR68H’s Asia Calling on October 30, 2010

Vandana Shiva: Growing new ideas on India’s farms

Indian environmental activist and author Dr Vandana Shiva is this year’s winner of the Sydney Peace Prize.

For decades, Dr Shiva has been fighting for the rights of small farmers across India. And while supporters of India’s 1960s Green Revolution, have trumpeted fertilisers, pesticides and modified crops like BT Cotton for saving India – Dr Shiva has a different approach.

She believes that the future of Indian agriculture is in small, organic farms.

I caught up with Dr Shiva in Sydney, to find out how she is changing India’s farming industry, one seed at a time.

Interview aired on Asia Calling, November 14, 2010

Mumbai’s deadly trains

Each day approximately 10 people die on Mumbai’s suburban train system. Some get hit while crossing the tracks, while others die from falling off or being electrocuted by overhead wires. Despite the alarming figures, the Indian government has done little to prevent this loss of life.

It’s peak hour in Mumbai and millions of commuters are pushing their way into trains.

To successfully get on board, you must employ a number of tactics. First, there’s yelling to intimidate your fellow traveler. Then comes the shoving, pushing and elbowing. If you’re lucky, you’ll find yourself inside a carriage, sandwiched against thousands of sweaty bodies.

Six million Mumbaiites use the suburban network each day, with most funneling back and forth from the city’s commercial district in the south.

It’s survival of the fittest here on the train and there’s simply not enough room for everybody.

There’s an old saying in Mumbai – “Survive the trains, survive anything”. I was interested in doing a story before I left about the daily experience of the city’s commuters. Listen to my story on what makes Mumbai’s trains so deadly.

Mumbai’s Trains – a risky business by Lauren_Farrow

Aired on Asia Calling on October 17, 2010

Comic relief during Commonwealth Games crisis

The Commonwealth Games is a manifestation of India’s dark side. It has all the elements: political corruption, disorganisation, shoddy workmanship, filthy accomodation, stray dogs and king cobras.

When Delhi was awarded the games, many believed it was an opportunity to show just how far the country had come. The games would prove that India was more than just slums, paan stains and choked up rickshaws. Instead it has become a national disgrace.

India’s inboxes are now flooded with CWG jokes – proving that in a crisis sometimes comedy is the only remedy.

Here are some of the more popular quips making the rounds:

• Suresh Kamadi just tried to hang himself in the CWG stadium. But the ceiling collapsed.
• Look at the brighter side; the more countries pull out, the higher India is ranked in the final medal tally.
• Terrorists set to skip CWG 2010 citing unlivable conditions and fear for their safety.
• Q: How many contractors are required to change a light bulb in Delhi CWG stadium? A: 1 Million. (1 to change bulb and rest 999,999 to hold the ceiling)
• Ba ba Kalmadi, have you any shame. No sir, No sir, its a Common Loot Game. Crores for my partner, crores for the dame, crores for me too, for spoiling India’s name!
• Next edition of CWG will be called KWG, Kalmadi Wealth Games

I caught up with a couple of Delhiites to find out their reaction to the CWG

Commonwealth Games by Lauren_Farrow

Battling opium addiction in India’s wild west

Opium is big business in India. In 2007 alone, India produced almost 350 tones of raw, legal opium for the international pharmaceutical industry. Despite strict monitoring of poppy farms, some of the opium always makes its way to the black market.

Opium’s ready availability coupled with its use in traditional ceremonies has led to high levels of addiction in the Western state of Rajasthan. At the frontline of this battle is a small detoxification centre. For almost three decades the centre has been helping addicts using unique and sometimes controversial methods.

Opium Treatment in Rajasthan by Lauren_Farrow

Aired on Deutsche Welle‘s World in Progress, September 15, 2010

Sitting on the sand under the relentless desert sun, twenty men are stretching into mountain and lotus poses.

It’s day six of a detox program, at the Opium De-Addiction Treatment Centre in Rajasthan, in India’s west. The men are battling serious addictions but little strain shows on their faces as they follow the directions of their instructor, Narendra Singh Chouhan.

Chouhan says yoga helps ease the men’s withdrawal symptoms, which include muscle spasms, vomiting and insomnia.

“Yoga increases first the mental concentration and gives him peace of mind. It also relaxes the body physically.”

Among the men is 31-year-old Subhash who comes from Haryana – Rajasthan’s neighbouring state. Subhash received no drug education during school and never knew that opium was addictive.

“Most of the labourers in the rice mill where I work are addicted to opium. They started giving me little bits here and there and I started taking it. I didn’t think there would be a problem.”

Two years later Subhash was spending four out of every five dollars he earned to support his habit.

Listen to the full story here