Black Leader Films helping take Oak Cliff to Hollywood

by Staff of Cliff Dweller

“Quiet on the set!” isn’t just being heard in Hollywood. These days, many Oak Cliff businesses and residences are starring in movies and television. Some of you might know a neighbor whose historic home was used in a commercial, or even remember that some of the hit series, Prison Break, was filmed throughout Oak Cliff. One production company seeks to join those ranks, putting our little hood even more on the Hollywood map: Black Leader Films makes its home right here in the neighborhood of North Cliff.

Writer and director Sai Selvarajan says some people wonder why he became a CliffDweller. “I love to show them it’s not the scary place they think it is. Filming here is only natural.” The trees, hills, and diversity of people and neighborhoods all contribute to the area’s charm. He adds, “Besides, the architecture looks great on camera.”

Selvarajan says the company began while he and his friends were students at UTA. School friend and writer/production designer Johnny Rutledge teamed up with Selvarajan to pen their first full-length feature film, and they plan to shoot it entirely on this side of the Trinity. Joy Lies is about an Indian father in America trying to repair his life and pull his family back together after he is released from prison on bank fraud charges. “Even though the film isn’t about Oak Cliff, it’s part of Oak Cliff,” says Sri Lankan-born Selvajaran. “We wrote it here, and we live here.” They’ve already scouted the locations they’ll use for filming once they obtain the $1.2 million needed for this small independent project.

Photographer, producer and director Chris Simpson, another school chum, rounds out the art collective of Black Leader Films. The name is a take on the black opaque film that helps facilitate splicing and moving between shots. All three men have impressive credentials in short films, commercials, music videos, documentaries and television shows. Their works have played in numerous film festivals around the world, including Blood and Oil, an experimental short using Alan Ginsberg’s poetry to examine the horrors of 9/11, which played at SXSW, and Separated By Light, a narrative short about a young, disillusioned filmmaker, which played globally including in the UK and Pakistan. It won a 2005 Golden Telly in New York. Other films include Swimmer, about two men conflicted by grief, and Last Free Exit, chronicling the pasts of two actors. Selvajaran claims Blood and Oil as his favorite project thus far.

As part of their funding effort, Black Leader pitched Joy Lies to Mark Cuban’s 2929 Entertainment and moved pretty far up the ladder, but ultimately wasn't selected. Now the search is on for private money, with the intention of filming in January ’09. The cast is already selected, as a result of consulting IMDB’s professional services and, believe it or not, Craigslist.com. The roles of the parents will be played by well-known actors from India, and will be joined by faces from the hit TV shows Heroes and The Sopranos.

A newspaper article was the inspiration for the story, Selvajaran explains. The writers wanted to look at the human side of crime and punishment. “Imagine prison for someone not of this culture, who’s soft and not from the streets,” Selvajaran says. He wants to remind us that “behind the mistake of the crime is a human being.” Selvajaran and Rutledge decided who would write each character and what would happen in each act. They then wrote the scenes, put them together and tweaked the story. “We had our battles,” he laughs, “but worked it out.” Having collaborated on other projects, the two are used to dealing with creative differences. The hardest part was trimming the script down from 150 pages to 110, the standard for a feature film — every writer hates to see his hard work tossed aside.

Simpson, Rutledge and Selvajaran also use the art collective to bring together artists from various media and hold benefits for different causes as part of their commitment to be involved in the global community. For example, one event earned money to help families in war-torn Lebanon and Israel.

And if they weren’t busy enough, they also make music. If you’re driving through North Cliff one Sunday and hear live music, it’s probably local band Warmth Through Distance and Selvajaran will be on the drums. His place on Aster Street not only serves as Black Leader Film headquarters, but also houses a band that exists primarily to score music for the movies. He says, happily, “We’re just here, making art in Oak Cliff.”

If all goes according to schedule, you may be able to catch Black Leader’s latest film, Joy Lies, in the fall of 2009. We’ll be watching!