Chris McDonell went to India to document Westerners who were there on a spiritual journey, but he ended up finding another story to tell.
Near the end of his almost month-long visit in 2008, he decided to take some time to relax, so he headed to the beach in Anjuna, in the Indian state of Goa.
“I was immediately blown away by what I saw,” McDonell said.
Almost everyone on the beach was white, many of them topless women, some openly doing drugs while cows roamed nearby.
“It’s like you’re entering a different planet,” he said.
What stood out most, however, were the many young Indian girls selling clothing, jewelry and trinkets to the hordes of tourists.
That’s how he met Shilpa Poojar, a nine-year-old girl who led him to her nearby shop.
“I knew then that the vacation was over,” McDonell said.
The next day, he returned with his camera and followed Poojar and others as they sold their goods to tourists.
Poojar, he learned, had been doing that since she was five. She was the breadwinner. Her family depended on those sales.
What struck McDonell was the young girl’s aspirations.
“She said her dream was to go to school, and she started welling up with tears when she told me that,” he recalled. “That’s what really hooked me.”
After one day of filming, he returned to Canada. He thought about many of his experiences in India, but “the one that was lingering was that encounter with the young beach hawker.”
McDonell decided one day of filming wasn’t enough. Between 2008 and 2019, he made five trips to India, meeting with Poojar when she was nine, 11, 12, 17 and 21 years old. The result is his new documentary, Queen of the Beach.
That’s the nickname given to Poojar, a member of the Banjara tribe.
The documentary details the girl’s struggles, sacrifices and achievements.
“This is a girl with so much potential,” McDonell said, noting Poojar did end up going to school for a year to learn to read and write English. “Shilpa’s story is one that I hope will inspire others to never give up on their dreams.”
He became close with Poojar and her family over the years, considered a brother by her siblings and referring to her mother as amma, or mom. He even flew to India to surprise Poojar at her wedding.
“Even when I think about it now, it blows my mind that I was able to make that connection,” he said.
It’s a far cry from his time in drama class at Park Street Collegiate Institute, and he credits his art and drama teachers with helping to spark an interest that has led him to where he is now.
McDonell was born in Milton and his family moved to Orillia when he was in Grade 3. He attended Orillia Christian School before Park Street.
He then went to the University of British Columbia, where he briefly studied fine arts before deciding an education at the Vancouver Film School was a better fit.
“I was a man on a mission to make movies,” he said.
He worked for a few years as an extra in movies — including 1993’s This Boy’s Life, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Barkin and Robert De Niro — and then was a production assistant for two seasons on The X-Files.
“That was really the big break that got me into the crew. It got me onto the set, where I could watch the pros behind the camera,” he said.
He went on to direct short films and the 2001 feature film Tribe of Joseph.
In 1995, he shot In Next Man Country, a short documentary about Liberian refugees who had settled in the Ivory Coast during their country’s civil war.
Queen of the Beach, though, has been among his most well-received works so far. It was accepted into eight film festivals in India and won 11 awards — including best picture or documentary at all eight festivals.
“For me, that’s the most important thing — that the people in India love the movie,” McDonell said.
Queen of the Beach is available on Apple TV, Amazon and Google Play.
More information about McDonell and his work can be found on his website.
