AFI FEST TRIBUTES SWINTON AND BOYLE

Following an a abbreviated schedule Tuesday to accommodate election night (and an enthusiastic impromptu party celebrating Obama’s win in the festival’s Cinema Lounge at the Roosevelt Hotel), the mid-week stretch at AFI Fest continued with an event honoring Academy Award-winning actor Tilda Swinton — featuring a highlight reel from her film career and discussion with journalist David Poland — and a Friday tribute to renowned director Danny Boyle, paired with a screening of his new film, Slumdog Millionaire.

A contemporary romantic epic, Slumdog chronicles the rise of a slum-dwelling boy (Dev Patel) growing up on Mumbai’s mean streets to become a top-winning contestant on India’s version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and his enduring love for a childhood sweetheart (Freida Pinto).

Starring relative unknowns in the lead roles and supported by some of Bollywood’s biggest-name stars, the film is a bravura celebration of the human spirit and the city of Mumbai (Bombay), written by The Full Monty scribe Simon Beaufoy and showcasing Boyle’s characteristically dynamic visual style.

In a conversation with the L.A. Time’s John Horn, Boyle described the technical and logistical challenges of making Slumdog on the teeming streets of Mumbai — the capital of India’s movie industry. “It’s a bit naïve thinking a foreigner can go there and make a movie,” Boyle observed, but noted that after reading Beaufoy’s script he realized “it was a portrait of a city — I couldn’t wait to get there.”

Working with a predominantly local crew and shooting on a new, compact digital prototype camera with hard-drive data storage (similar to the RED system Soderbergh used on Che), 35mm and even the video setting on a Canon EOS digital still camera, Boyle and frequent collaborating cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle capture some indelible images at a variety of striking locations. The smaller cameras made it easier to move around and shoot on crowded streets without attracting attention from ardent local film fans. “You need to flow with the city,” observed Boyle about filming in Mumbai.

“I think movies are about forward motion,” he commented about Slumdog’s headlong visuals near the end of the discussion. “I find that really optimistic and tried to get that in the film.”