Today we’d like to introduce you to Abijeet Achar.
Abijeet, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born and raised in Durban, South Africa. My family and I immigrated to the U.S. in 2004. My creative endeavors started in theatre my freshman year of high school. In my junior year, I missed a cue in a play, and one of the drama teachers decided to blacklist me from the program. Needing something else creative to do, I joined the broadcast video production program. Drama and Video had this weird beef. Like, “I’m the higher art form.” So I joined, and I loved it. It was something I thought I was sort of good at, and I had a lot of fun doing it.
College came around, and in a diplomatic move to compromise with my parents, I majored in business management and minored in film studies. I figured I could become a producer. I was taking these intense business courses, but they were balanced out with my film studies courses. I was also freelancing in Atlanta shooting music videos, concerts, and some corporate live event gigs. But in the start of my senior year, the management degree was taking its toll on me. My grades were slipping, I was pretty depressed, I couldn’t connect with my peers, and I was on the verge of losing my HOPE scholarship. I decided to switch my minor to my major. In 2013 I graduated with a BA in Film studies. Since Film Studies focused on theory and history, I decided to pursue an MFA to gain a formal education in a production-focused program.
In 2013, I went straight from UGA to Emerson College in Boston to attain an MFA in Media Art. It was during the MFA studies that I decided to hone in on cinematography. I graduated in 2016 after completing my thesis film, “My Indian Rhapsody,” which went on to be a runner-up in the Student Academy Awards and had its world premiere at the 2017 Atlanta Film Festival. After graduate school, I moved to Los Angeles for an internship at Michel Gondry’s production company, Partizan. I lived there for four months and was immediately humbled. LA brought me back down to Earth, and I got a taste of the traditional ladder system of Hollywood. I tried to land a job for months with no luck. However, in the fall of 2016, I was offered a job as the touring cinematographer for an Atlanta based country musician, Corey Smith. I took the job, packed up, and the universe brought me back to Atlanta. I got to see the entire country, and it was an amazing experience. During my off time, I started a production company with my partners, Pineapple Cut Pictures. In January of 2019, I quit touring and focused on Pineapple Cut full time. And I’ve been doing it ever since.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Immigrating is really damn hard. Granted, I kind of tagged along wherever my parents went (thanks mom and dad). But it was difficult fitting into these new schools, new environments, new countries. Also, I was a short, chubby, high pitched Indian kid. Starting 8th grade in suburban Georgia with that brand sucks. Not to mention, the incredible struggle I saw my parents endure. Trading in a seemingly perfect life in South Africa for something supposedly better. We were quite well to do in SA, but crime had gotten really awful. Our house was burglarized three times in a single year. So they traded in all their wealth for a shot at something better for their kids.
We lived in Toronto for two years. Stripped of upper-class wealth, and now spending our days in an immigrant sardine can of an apartment building. My parents made it comfortable for my brother and I. We were shielded from how hard it really was for them. My mom, a professor with a Ph.D. in microbiology, ecstatic to find work at an American Express call center. My dad, a mechanical engineer with an MBA scrounging enough money to buy a used car (which broke down on a highway en route to his first day of work). After two difficult years and hundreds of job applications, my mom landed a job at Kennesaw State University as a professor. That’s how we got to America.
Experiencing that mental strain, and watching your parents endure, it really sticks with you. And it doesn’t get talked about enough. I suppose that’s my angle for wanting to tell these underrepresented stories. No one really knows how hard that was. No one really knows what my parents went through to get to where they are. We all live in a bubble. And my company wants to pop those bubbles and let a mainstream audience gain some perspective. Whether it’s for immigrants, BIPOC’s, LGBTQ+, or female-driven narratives, we need to tell those stories. Especially in this dumpster fire of a political state, we need those stories now more than ever. We’re all really hungry for representation.
Please tell us about Pineapple Cut Pictures.
Based in Castleberry Hill, Pineapple Cut Pictures is a three-time Emmy Award-winning production company established in 2017. Our work includes narrative films, commercial vignettes, and music videos. PCP’s mission is to shed light on underrepresented narratives, to give a voice to those who need it, and to take charge on creating a culture of equality within the independent film industry.
In 2019, our first feature film, Pageant Material (dir. Jono Mitchell), had its sold-out world premiere at the Atlanta Film Festival, and Water Horse (dir. Sarah Wisner & Sean Temple), a short horror film that earned an official selection at Fantastic Fest, took home “Best Cinematography” at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival. To cap a brilliant year of growth, in 2019, Pineapple Cut Pictures was honored with three Southeast Regional Emmy Awards for our Artist Vignette series. This year, Pineapple Cut Pictures produced a commercial and 7 short films that are currently in post-production, to be released this year. Today, I’m continuing to manage the production company with my two partners, Alex Woodruff and Duncan Hodges.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I’m truly a product of my mentors, supporters, and loved ones. Definitely my mom and dad, Premila and Vasu, for supporting me through all of this. They sacrificed a lot so their kids could have a better life. That level of support in the arts is rare, especially with immigrant families. I’d like to thank my brother, Abhishek, for becoming a badass neurologist in Queens and taking the pressure off of me to pursue a professional degree. All my friends and family domestic and abroad that have supported me, emotionally and financially through multiple kickstarters. My best friends from High School that I still rock with today: Kyle, Matt, Neil, Frankie, Cameron. My business spouses Alex Woodruff and Duncan Hodges for running the company with me. I’m excited to grow old with y’all. My long time creative soulmate Connor Christensen for founding the company with me. My professors and peers at Emerson College for guiding me in being an artist.
The filmmakers I’ve met in my MFA program are insanely talented, and I continue to work with them today. Logan Freeman, Sean Temple, and Sofia Caetano, to name a few. My fellow cinematographer mentor Nicholas Corsano. Apart from cinematography, he also taught me the best lesson I bring to every set today, “just be kind.” A surprisingly easy lesson that’s not always common in this industry. Kendall Durkee for recommending me, and Corey Smith for hiring me to be his touring cinematographer and bringing me back to Atlanta. Our clients that continue to hire Pineapple Cut Pictures. All the amazing crew that I’ve worked with in Atlanta. Seriously, I just hire people that are more talented than me. I really stand by the saying, “surround yourself with people smarter than you.” The city of Atlanta. When you invest emotionally in a city, you kind of hope for something back, Atlanta does that. It loves you back. And the one high school theater teacher that didn’t blacklist me, Mr. Deavers. He would often quote Tennyson, “I’m a part of all that I have met.” It’s true. All these people are a part of me. They influenced me and shaped a course for the rest of my life. That can’t go unnoticed, and I’m forever grateful.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pineapplecutpictures.com
- Phone: 770-861-2064
- Email: info@pineapplecutpictures.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/pineapplecutpictures
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/pineapplecut
Image Credit:
Christopher Lewis Dawkins
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