Composer Nainita Desai joins the show to talk about her new score to the feature documentary The Reason I Jump, as well as her composing process, the differences between scoring for film, tv, and documentaries, and the role of awards acclaim in her work.
The score for The Reason I Jump has been nominated for a British Independent Film Award for “Best Music” and a Cinema Eye Honors Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score.” In addition, Nainita’s work on the score helped her recently secure a nomination for ASCAP’s Composer Choice Award!
Nainita on how she worked with found sound and sound design to craft her score: “early on in the film you see the big rhythmical ceiling fan and table fan piece that introduces you to the character of Amrit. It’s very rhythmical, heavy on the polyrhythms. So I got given sound design elements or found, sound there, and I created my own version of the piece where I did my own rhythms and then I added other musical elements to it.”
Have a listen to our conversation below or wherever you get your podcasts (including Spotify and Apple Podcasts). Watch the full, uncut interview below as well.
Find out more about Nainita on her website. The Reason I Jump is currently available through Kino Lorber and Nainita’s full score is forthcoming (although singles from the score are available).
“Based on the best-selling book by Naoki Higashida, later translated into English by author David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas), The Reason I Jump is an immersive cinematic exploration of neurodiversity through the experiences of nonspeaking autistic people from around the world. The film blends Higashida’s revelatory insights into autism, written when he was just 13, with intimate portraits of five remarkable young people. It opens a window for audiences into an intense and overwhelming, but often joyful, sensory universe.”
