James Ivory Documentary Leads New York’s Min(d) Studio Slate (EXCLUSIVE)

A documentary on revered filmmaker James Ivory is part of an eclectic slate from Min(d) Studio, New York, it was revealed on the sidelines of Singapore’s Asia TV Forum and Market.

The boutique studio, the brainchild of Dev Benegal (New York City), Maya Patel (London and Hong Kong), Neeraj Jain (Los Angeles), came together during the pandemic with a shared vision to tell stories about people and cultures that are often unheard and unseen. Benegal is the celebrated director of “English, August,” “Split Wide Open” and “Road, Movie.”

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The slate kicks off with “Ink & Ivory,” a film on director James Ivory (one half of the famed Merchant-Ivory partnership and adapted screenplay Oscar winner for “Call Me By Your Name”) and his vision for an exhibition of works selected by him at The Metropolitan Museum, New York, scheduled for summer 2024.

Feature “Further to Fly,” from a short story by Meera Nair, will tell the story of an immigrant woman in Jackson Heights, New York, who believes her neighbor above is an angel. The project was an official selection of the PGA Create Fellowship 2022. Freida Pinto and Emily Verellen Strom of Freebird Films are onboard as executive producers.

Based on “Moon Goddess,” the novel by Niti Sampat Patel, feature “The Violet Hour” is a ghost story following three young women across generations set in the mystical deserts of Kutch, India.

Feature “A Love Supreme,” an official selection at the Film Bazaar co-production market at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa 2023, is a turbulent love story of an actor and director as they stage the classic play “Shakuntala” and one sets out to discover the elusive woman lost to time.

Limited series “Risk,” based on the book “Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and the Invention of Modern Photojournalism” by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos, is inspired by and based on the story of the photographers Gerda Taro and Robert Capa. In the series, a couple fall in love and risk everything to wake the world. Together they transform how stories are told through images. Taro later became a pioneering woman war photographer. Capa became considered the greatest photographers of our times.

Benegal said: “Our stories exist at the intersection of smart and commercial. It’s a tightrope. And we want to walk that high wire.”

Patel added: “While we champion stories that can spark conversation outside the walls of cinema, we also want people to feel entertained and united.”

Jain said: “The three of us have found such a beautiful synergy in working together and the stories we want to tell. We work with the premise that cinema is meant to be experienced on a big screen. Our vision is big, our stories are immersive.”

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