Founder of Dalphinium Media, SARA RANGOONI is a Director and Writer dedicated to changing the narrative for equity deserving communities through powerful storytelling. Born and raised in Toronto, her award-winning proof of concept, short film, Leveled still continues to make the festival circuit worldwide and has catapulted her to new heights. She believes in the power of changing perspective through four-dimensional storytelling.
As one of four selected for Rising Voices with Hillman Grad, Bipoc TV& Film and Indeed for Leveled, she is in the development stages of her coming-of-age feature. With a slate of projects in film and series, Sara is dedicated to telling powerful stories that centre on themes of belonging, love and loss layered with a distinct dramatic and comedic tone which is both entertaining and relatable.
Sara is committed to changing the narrative by pushing boundaries and challenging cultural norms. She continues to charter a path in the industry through various recognized programs and creating content on screen as a proficient writer and director.
What is your film about? What were the intentions behind it?
This film is about a young girl named Sapphire. She is trying to pursue her dreams, and she's confronted with all these challenges on this particular day. One of them is a very matriarchal grandmother and a mom who is sick with cancer. So we follow her on this day where anything and everything could possibly happen to her. The questions that I really wanted the audience to start thinking about is, how do we suffer managing so many different levels of challenges in life, and will she be able or will she want to, be still motivated to, after all the challenges, pursue this dream that she's had since she was little?
That's the film. I'm so vague about it because I really don't want to give it away, because there is this kind of magical moment towards the end, where you can start realizing what her dreams are. I think what's really great about this film, in that way and that story, is that I really wanted to create a story where it doesn't matter what you look like, it doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter.
You know what the expectations are. Conventionally, Sapphire really defies all that. She is pursuing a dream that perhaps a lot of people wouldn't even think is a possibility. And that was really what the point of the story was, creating this possibility. Especially with young girls who struggle with just doing the things they love the most.
Maybe it's family, maybe it's societal expectations. I think it's South Asians, too. And as Muslims, we're expected to be a doctor or a lawyer or something. And it's not often that we are able to be like, oh, I want to be a filmmaker. And even if we want to be that, we have to really keep it a secret.
That's something that lives inside our hearts. So I wanted that to really manifest and kind of show the ups and the downs of what happens when you're really, really, really, serious about pursuing your dreams.
Still from Leveled
It’s one of those things that sparks for me as well, coming from a very Muslim background, like as you said, being South Asian, being a woman. As we grow up, we're only shown that there's only one way of doing things. How did this eventually help you to craft your own film? What was that experience like for you?
So when I was writing the screenplay, my grandma—who I was really close to—she's a lovely lady. She was a lovely lady. She was taking her last breaths. And she lived with us growing up. I had this moment where I was thinking about how resilient she was. She was for such a long time. And I thought, what if she was given a different set of parameters? She came from a very underprivileged background, and my grandfather, marrying him gave her a privileged life, but it wasn't privileged enough because she was still this female living in Karachi, Pakistan, having to deal with all these different levels of bias against women.
So I always wondered, what would she have been? What would she have done? As I was writing, I thought all of us have generational trauma, regardless of where we come from, we all have to deal with. But on the other hand, what if we created a world that defied all that trauma and made it possible for this young girl to actually do what she wanted to do? And what would that work look like? And what would her family look like and what would her parents look like? And that's basically how I came up with Leveled.
Still from Leveled
You did talk briefly about the inspiration behind making the film, but I also wanted to know, apart from that, what was it like when you were starting to write it down? Were there any specific visual elements that inspired you into the making?
I love Greta Gerwig's Little Women screenplay. It is one of my favorite screenplays. I read it very often. I think it's really brilliantly written, but also because I love the story of Little Women, and it's just about all these young women, who are just going through their own challenges during this period in our history.
I thought, okay, that is something that as a South Asian female Muslim I've gone through. I've had family living with us for years. I've had like 3 to 4 generations of women living under the same home. And it was pretty cool growing up with that experience. So that really played into Leveled.
On the other hand, writing it in terms of tone, on how I wanted to portray Safa, who's the protagonist… I really wanted to create a protagonist that was relatable, that could defy gender, culture, religion. Yes, she wears a hijab. Yes, she comes from this almost traditional family in some ways, and modern family in some ways. But how can I make that relatable to someone who isn’t the same gender and doesn't come from the same cultural background or religious background? That was really important to me. That to me, it was about creating this nuanced character that is very much like myself in a lot of ways. I've had people watch the film and be like, oh my God, like, I can totally relate to her. And they haven't had the same background as her.
In terms of like, visually, I am, I am obsessed with Spike Lee. He's someone I've really looked up to. From a director's standpoint. I really, really wanted to incorporate these really urban, raw moments in the film. So there are these like, exterior shots that take us, like someone who's from the wrong side of the tracks to the right side of the tracks, whatever that means, to moments where there's certain shots that I took a chance with that I wanted to have in the film, that I was inspired by a lot of his films. Do the Right Thing was one of them.
Color was very important to me in this film. And if you really take a closer look, there's a lot of pink tones, a lot of blush. I love that's one of my favorite colors, but that's just such a calming and peaceful color too. I really wanted Safa to be associated with that color.
When you were thinking of the visual aspects of this film, did you already had the color palette in your mind?
As a writer, because I feel like I'm a writer first, I really just go to the script and I write these characters for what they are. These visions come to me, and I'll take note of them. When it came time for pre-production and I had a long time to prepare, I was very specific with the color and the tone. That's kind of how I approach all of my projects. It was something that I worked with my DP on before we went to camera. We worked with the lighting department before we went to camera, and they were able to create that perfect moment in each scene for me.
Post is a very different process. It's almost like you're redoing the film on another level. Working with my colorist and just exploring how those pink tones could, at times, affect certain shots was something that I didn't expect. That was a learning moment. But I had such a great team that they were able to help me see my vision to life.
Still from Leveled
My next question has two parts. The first part of it is how was pre-production? And then the second part, what kind of advice would you give out to emerging filmmakers who are just starting out?
In terms of pre-development, when I created or wrote Leveled, I did want to figure out if this was something that I could take to screen. I knew in my heart I could, but it was my first real big production with this budget. I submitted it to various screenplay competitions. And, when I started getting some of the accolades, that was a confirmation to me that what I was feeling inside is true and I want to take this to screen. It just so happened that it was around Covid and it was challenging to figure out how I was going to navigate this landscape because I was quite new to the industry, so I didn't know as many people.
So connecting with people online, learning about the process. What was really great is I had a background in digital media, so I brought a lot of that business sense to the project management part, of creating in terms of pre-development. And, that is kind of how I worked on Leveled, just kind of learning and understanding and figuring out.
I learned that it's okay to ask questions. It's okay to not know exactly how things work. It can be really intimidating. A lot of my friends in film school really helped me understand, okay, this is what you need to do. Another element to making this film was to create your tribe, rely on people who you can trust. I'm all about feedback. I'm all about making sure that every step that I'm working on is headed in the right direction. For me, preparation and planning was so important. So that was a key element.
My advice to emerging filmmakers is to just not stop. If you feel stuck, that's okay. That's almost like a good sign. That means that you are on the right track. You just have to find a solution. And I think that's kind of the complications or challenges that we have in this industry, is that there's no one way of making a film. If you surround yourself with the right people and you know what your goal is and you set those goals and you align those in the intention that you have, as a storyteller with those goals, I think you're going to be okay.
For me, my goal was to create a story that could change the narrative for young Muslim girls. The way that they see themselves is normalized on screen, because that's just something I never had. That was something that just kept me going. I'm not going to say it was easy. It was definitely challenging. And it was a learning experience. But I think every project you work on there will be something new that you learn about yourself.
Which filmmakers have really inspired you when it comes to your own work or when it comes to telling stories, the ones that you really want to tell.
I mentioned Greta Gerwig, I just think she's a brilliant writer. I'm such a nerd writer. So I love, love reading scripts that really speak to me like her. I love Spike Lee like he has been. He's just so OG to me. He just knows how to make a film happen, and he is not about all the hoopla and making it Uber big. It's just about the story. And that's really important to me. As a storyteller, I also really love, just last year at TIFF, Zaheer Khan, I love his work. I love Saim Sadiq, Joyland. It was just perfection to me. I think there's just certain creators that are just doing things that are just so inspiring to me.I love Mindy Kaling. I think there's just so many people, I don't want to name just one. For me, I think what's important is, staying true to the story and really looking at people who are doing it differently and out of the box, but still being able to get to the meat of the story.
I really believe, if you don't have a good script, if your story has holes in it, if your story doesn't have a beginning, middle and end – yes, I am definitely a Save the Cat girl. A lot of filmmakers that I've been name dropping here, they all know what story telling is for me and so many more.
Queen of My Dreams is another example. Fawzia, who just took this concept and put it on screen and it was just so beautifully made. John Hughes, I love his storytelling.
What do you have next for you?
I am working on the development of my feature for Leveled right now. Packaging that, trying to look for funds, trying to take that to camera. I just got out of the Rising Voices program, and I learned so much from that program and was able to bring this feature script to life.
I'm also working on a short film called Lavenders in Bloom that is a very different story. A little bit more magical realism in it. So those are the two films that I'm working on, and I have a series in development as well. And a book that I'm actually hoping to have published very soon that I have been working on for the last four years.
That’s amazing stuff, excited to see them. My last question. What was the best advice that you received while you were on this journey of filmmaking?
The best advice I received is going to be complicated to understand. But if you know, you know, it's on one hand, it's okay to not be okay and not know. Sometimes what it is that is next. But at the same time, prepare and plan and set goals for yourself. I think that's really, really important because you can get really lost in this industry and really caught up with things that might not align with what you originally intended to do when you came, and entered this, this, amazing, crazy, wild industry.
But when you have goals and you prepare and you plan and you set these milestones for yourself, you're constantly working towards something.
Another advice that I got from my mentor, Tricia Fish. She is a screenplay writer. She told me to write the stories that I want to see and not be afraid to do that. I always hold that close to my heart, because every time I'm about to work on a new script I can get lost in my head trying to figure out which direction at times you want to go with. Then I center myself. I have it literally on my board in front of my desk, “what story do you want to see?” That's how simple it is. So those were some of the best advices I got.
I knew that I needed to tell that story. I didn't wait for someone to give me the green light. I just greenlit it myself. That's the beauty of being a filmmaker or being a storyteller. And once you prepare and you have everything planned out, when that fund comes, it's almost like you manifested that.
Interview by Breakthroughs Board Member Daraksha Rehman
*This article has been edited for clarity