Meera Menon’s debut film, female-centric Equity attracts rave reviews

A smart young Jersey girl is making big waves in Hollywood. Meet Meera Menon, who's first big film, Equity is all set for release in New York and Los Angeles July 29 and slated for a nation-wide release in September. 

Always involved in the film world, Meera is the daughter of C Vijayan Menon, who founded Tara Arts, a company that has been around for close to four decades. Tara Arts has been instrumental in bringing films and film personalities from Kerala to the United States. It was perhaps this early exposure to the world of cinema that led to a nascent interest Meera Menon always had in movies. 

She has a Bachelor's degree in English and Art History from Columbia and a Masters in Fine Arts from USC. Menon was the recipient of the inaugural Nora Ephron Prize for a groundbreaking woman filmmaker at the Tribeca Film Festival for Farah Goes Bang, her first film in 2013. She was also included as one of Glamour magazine’s “35 Women Under 35 Running Hollywood” in the same year. 

“I was always interested in cinema. Farah Goes Bang was a dream project for me at that time,” she says. 

“After the film was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival, I met scores of producers and production companies who were interesting, and interested. I chose to work with the makers of Equity – which turned out to be a great choice. I was signed on to direct it. It was a wonderful project – working on such a female­centric role. 

It's the story of a young financial wiz on Wall Street who is in the process of working on an IPO for a controversial technology company. It's a lot of twists and turns, as people try to undermine her and grab her share of success, and how she overcomes the situations. It was great to direct such a venture and I really learnt a lot, especially about working with established actors.” 

The 100­minute movie stars Anna Gunn, of Breaking Bad fame, Alysia Reine of Orange is the New Black fame, James Purefoy and Sarah Megan Thomas. It's a tight plot and one sure to keep the viewers guessing the next frame. It was purchased by Sony Pictures for about $3.5 million, and that led to a release on a larger scale. With the purchase by Sony, the film is already a success financially, though it cannot be termed a commercial film as such, Vijayan Menon said. 

Though Meera is happy with the achievements of the film, she feels that she is ready for the next project to come her way. “I have really done all that I could have for this film. I'm now just sitting back and watching it move from one place to another,” says the 32 ­year ­old. 

Naturally, this film and it's commercial presence has led to greater things for her as well. “I have better people around me, who will assist in taking me to the next level in my career, and I am very excited about that. But in the end, that's what you want, but the most important thing is to work on continuing to stay afloat and relevant as a film maker.”

Broad Street Pictures’s Wall Street drama ‘Equity,’ is touted as the first female-driven Wall Street film, and it follows an investment banker who is threatened by a financial scandal and must untangle a web of corruption, according Variety.

Broad Street was founded by ‘Orange Is the New Black’ actress Alysia Reiner and ‘Backwards’ actress Sarah Megan Thomas to produce films with strong female roles before and behind the camera.

“Also, as the daughter and sister of accomplished professional women, (both medical doctors) I am honored to direct a film that will both celebrate and investigate the finer details of being a powerful woman in a predominantly male work place," she said earlier. 

“I had the benefit of being raised by a father who was in his own way involved in the industry even though he was an engineer by trade,” she said. “But because of his interest and love and passion for the arts, I was given a bit of a license to pursue as a profession.”

She is also well aware of the lack of representation of South Asians in Hollywood. “It’s still a challenge and that’s a conversation or a change of wave I’d like to be a part of,” she said. “I have so many incredibly talented South Asian friends who really struggle to find good roles for themselves. There is still a lot of stereotyping in television and movies.”

The Nora Ephron Prize with $25,000, was instituted in memory of film maker Ephron, recognizes a ‘woman writer or director with a distinctive voice.’

Farah Goes Bang was a road trip comedy which follows a woman in her twenties, Farah Mahtab, a Persian, who tries to lose her virginity while campaigning across America for presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004.

The producers and technical staff were all friends. They raised almost $100,000 to make the 90 minute film.

Menon had won a national television award in India for her performance on the hit TV show “American Dreams” when she was 18. In addition to her filmmaking career, she has worked as a curator for contemporary film and video art festivals in Paris, Miami, and New York.

Undergraduate classmates at Columbia University, Laura Goode and Meera met when Menon starred in the production of Laura’s first play, The Martyr Letters, in 2003, and collaborated on the short films ‘The Seduction of Shaitan’ (2006), ‘Memor Ergo Sum’ (2007), ‘Are You Laura Goode?’ (2007) and a teaser for Farah Goes Bang (2010).

“We used Kickstarter to raise a large portion of the funds for Farah... Additionally, some friends from school and I banded together to form a company that owns and rents professional camera equipment. We use this equipment to make our films and we also promised to always help each other as the crew.

Finding Creativity in the face of limited resources was the greatest challenge on a daily basis, but also the most rewarding aspect of the process,” she said earlier.

Her advice to new film makers: ‘The biggest lesson I took away from making the movie is that you just have to make the movie. Period. Nothing will ever be perfect, no moment will ever be the right time- if you want to make movies you just have to find a way to start making them.

The response of the family for her film career was very positive. “My father is my greatest inspiration to enter the movie business and he has been very supportive and offered me great advice.” 

Meera with husband Paul, mother Dr. Radhika and father C. Vijayan Menon