Palmerston North filmmaker Arka Gupta launches crowdfunding for Dirty Dishes

Dirty Dishes director Arka Gupta with Zain Collins (Max), first assistant director Zak Rodgers, and Ben Pryor (the father). Photo / Arlo Macmillan

Dirty dishes on the bench is a scene everyone can relate to, a nightly battle, a chore that never seems to end.

It is also the name of Palmerston North filmmaker Arka Gupta's third short film.

Dirty Dishes is set in Palmerston North.

"I wanted to bring the Palmy element into the script."

Gupta was in a mentally dark place while writing a feature-length script about a toxic mother when the story for Dirty Dishes came to him.

The story is told from the teenage boy's perspective. Max has never met his father and continues to pester his mother about the man's identity. His parents both used to be vet students but his mother now works as a supermarket cashier. Then one day the boy has an encounter with his father and sees his mother in a new light.

Zain Collins plays Max, Jane Bennett the mother, Ben Pryor the father, and Cam Dickons and Sam Wyss are Max's friends.

The whole film is being shot in Gupta's flat.

He approached the New Zealand Film Commission for funding. The commission didn't have any available but its talent development coordinator Prashanth Guna will co-produce the film with Gupta.

"He has this huge knowledge and experience of being in the screen industry for over a decade."

Gupta says he is learning a lot from his co-producer, including how to do everything by the book and more professionally.

For his second film Distancing, which was shot in Palmy and released last year, he did just about every behind-the-scenes role and also funded it.

"I was quite surprised, how did I do all that by myself."

This time he will stick to directing.

There are 17 crew with Hugh Dingwall on sound, Derrick Sims is the cinematographer, and Justin Ngai the script supervisor. Taryn Field, who starred in Distancing, is the production coordinator.

Gupta has launched a Boosted fundraising campaign he hopes will raise $11,000. He wants to honour the cast and crew with honest wages, get the necessary resources, and have funds for post-production.

Gupta has also applied for Creative Communities Scheme funding and is seeking sponsors, "people willing to donate a handsome amount". In return, sponsors will get to see a Palmy project being made and there could be a chance to get on board as an executive producer.

Rehearsals are under way with filming planned for late April.

Gupta is a scientist at the Leather and Shoe Research Association. He's just started working after finishing his PhD at Massey University on treating sheep infected with roundworm.

He arrived in June 2018 with a master's degree in chemistry from West Bengal State University.

The public is invited to meet the cast and crew on March 26, 4-6pm, at Hancock Community House. The cast will perform a snippet from the script.

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