Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The trailer

The Ballad of Robert & Harvey trailer was made by Ron and here it is



The Ballad of Robert & Harvey

Centered on the troubled friendship between Robert and Harvey, the film exposes the unique hardships and common humanity of people who live among us but are virtually unknown.

That's the story I wanted to tell the world. I wanted to relate ourselves with those unlucky people. I think we are lucky to have roof on us. Who knows what will happen to us tomorrow.. So lets not ignore those people. When you see them on the road side please don't make any comments at least. If you are interested take them to near by food joint get them some thing to eat they appreciate that.. Sure some of them drug addicts.... but not many of them..

My editors


When I finished the project, I was looking for an Editor who has compassion to do this film. Its not just yet another homeless film showing drugs, prostitution etc. I wanted to show the human side of the homeless people. I made very elaborate search finally I have got an editor 'Tim Vece' when he seen a first tape he took one month leave from his paying gigs and started to digitize entire 60 hours of film and made 120 minutes film. Tim is a great human being and I salute for his yo man service and compassion towards fellow humans. Next Charla Williams took the film and created a current story of the first part of the film, meanwhile she got admission to do PhD in documentary in UCLA she relocated to CA. Then comes Ron he is another great man he is trained physician and psychiatrist turned avid editor. He has great sense for music and he created 78 minutes film and renamed it as "The Ballad of Robert & Harvey" Ron wanted to move to LA to join with his son's family so he also left the project. Once again God sends me angels to my side, I have been very lucky in that case Pete and Matt joined with me to complete all three parts of the film now. These guys are young and very vibrant people. They have great skills and knowledge...BTW Pete hates Mac....Now the duo editors almost completed the first part and they are on their way to the second part...

Monday, March 9, 2009

Seth the Sailor




Seth is another interesting unfortunate man I met in the alien world. He is very intelligent and smart man. He was a physical therapist but when things went wrong he lost his licence to practice and his family and life. He was a Gulf war veteran and served in the US Navy. His two of children even do not know whether he is alive or not....

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Harvey Wall Banger




Harvey is another man whom I met at the homeless world. He has 7 different cancer and full blown AIDS but he is the example of hope and joy for man kind. He was a former Vice President of U Haul and first marketing professor of Atlanta tax college in 1970. I guess man's fate is decided when he was born that's what my mother use to say. He had every thing but now he has ID card, pocket of cigarette and a pair of reading glass. He is well dressed man in the homeless world. He was also served in the US Navy and served in Vietnam. He was raped and molested by 19 year old man when he was 5 years old. He tells me that opened his eyes that he loves men. He lived with his partner for 35 years. His partner died of AIDS in 2003 from then he become a homeless thanks to his partner's family

Robert De Sourjan

Robert is a Vietnam veteran and very talented man. I am never able to understand how this man is become a homeless person at all. He is very kind hearted person and works for his food and mouth wash. BTW he is addicted to mouth wash, he thinks full kick he gets from Kroger brand only and it is very cheap. Robert is a great musician, composer and song writer. I have seen his collections at Borders and other places. I have seen people comes and takes him for song writing but most of the time he is happy with a bottle of mouth wash. I guess he gets cheated all the time....first of all he shouldn't be on the streets but some times God is relay crazy. He was born a drug addict. His mother used heavy drugs while she was pregnant and she gave him away when he was a 6 months old baby. He went to school, graduated and wonderful life... when his wife dead at the age of 21 at the military hospital due to wrong medications his life changed totally 360 degree... I will post more about him latter. If at all if you see him near Ponce De Leon, Atlanta, GA or at Gulf port, Mississippi say hello to him. He never begs, he is a very good painter....


Friday, February 27, 2009

Why I did this?


I am an Independent filmmaker trying to make difference in people lives. But at the same time when I watch documentaries made by western filmmakers particularly American filmmakers, they all go to Africa, Asia and many other remote part of the world and showcase their poverty or ugly side of that part of the world. Not to mention finally they will end up in getting Oscars for their works. I am not upset or angry about it but I use to think why these same filmmakers are afraid to show their country and their problems. BTW I am originally from India and shown the unfortunate and pathetic real life child prostitutes in my first film "Mathamma The mother Goddess" and then in my next film "The Cellestial Brides" I have shown life of transgender people in India... This time I decided to take an American issue So from 2006 to 2008 I lived on and off along the rode side of Atlanta and shot this film with my friend Kumar. Originally we were about to stay there for 30 days but after living with these homeless people for a week, me and my friend Kumar decided to stay for more days and try to help some of them and reunite them with their families. We were end up filming hours and hours of footage. More than that we have learnt lot from these people. One most important thing is that they are just like you and me. They were made of blood and flush just like us. They have love, dream and you name it they feel every thing just like us. They breath the same air what we all breath to live. Why we think these people are modern untouchables, slum dogs, drug addicts, psychos, mad caps etc.... if you think that way you must be not understanding and underestimating other human beings. Once we start cutting the film I will start posting each and every character whom we have interacted those days...Weather we have succeeded in our goal or not but we took little effort to show the compassion to other human beings