Interview: Minhal Baig

I first met filmmaker Minhal Baig at the 2013 Black List Screenwriters Lab in Las Vegas. She struck me as a bright, ambitious, and talented storyteller. Since that time, I have followed Minnie’s progress with great interest. This week she is launching a Kickstarter campaign for a short film called Hala. It tells both a compelling and important story about a Muslim-American girl who faces the tensions between faith, family, and sexual exploration. This project is hopefully a first step toward a feature-length movie.

As I see part of the mission of this blog to support independent filmmakers, I took the opportunity to ask Minnie some questions about her background and what she envisions for the Hala project.

Here are links to the three installments of the entire interview:

Part 1: “I moved out to Los Angeles and started working at a talent agency, but continued writing plays when I could. Sometime after moving to LA, I shifted my focus to screenplays and I’ve been writing them ever since.”

Part 2: “A first-time filmmaker needs conviction in their vision, patience and perseverance. With that in mind, I consumed everything on the art of directing — from the more technical aspects of filmmaking and production to working with actors.”

Part 3: “My hope for Hala is simple. I want to tell a personal story as authentically as possible. I want to take emotional risks and dig deeply. I want Hala to be a visually aggressive experience: a burst of feeling, full of rich color and texture. This film is a subjective, intimate portrait of a girl becoming a woman.”

You can read more about Hala here.

Minhal’s director’s statement here.

The Hala team here.

The movie’s website here.

Twitter: @minhalbaig.