Shortcuts to photo ops and free shrimp

Vikram Jayanti could never win a Golden Globe.

The filmmaker has won numerous awards for the documentaries he has produced and directed over the last 15 years . He was, for instance, the co-producer of the Oscar-winning 1996 documentary Once We Were Kings.

Not that he ever wants to take a Golden Globe home. Jayanti has made a hour-long documentary Golden Globes: Hollywood's Little Secret denouncing the awards given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). Though the awards, plagued a decade ago by charges of favouritism and gift-grabbing from major studios, have gained certain amount of respectability in recent years, they are not good enough for Jayanti.

In recent years, the Golden Globes which are televised by NBC have also recognized low budget films such as Monster's Ball and have enhanced their chances for the Oscar nominations. Several other small films would not have impressed the Oscar voters but for the high profile the Golden Globes gave them, Hollywood observers say. Hilary Swank's gender-bending role in Boys Don't Cry earned her an Academy Award, following her surprise victory at the Golden Globes. Many Hollywood studios and writers believe that the Globes are forerunners of the Oscars.

But Jayanti, director of such acclaimed documentaries as The Feast Of Death (about famed writer James Ellroy) still finds the awards distasteful.

His documentary, which debuted on the Trio cable channel Sunday night, four days before the Golden Globe nominations are announced, is being shown several times through December. NBC will air the 61st annual Golden Globes live January 25, about a month before the Oscars. Year after year, top Hollywood stars and directors turn up for the event.

Many people in Hollywood know that HFPA is a closely-knit association and its 90 members, who work as part-time journalists, never write for major foreign publications. There have been many articles to this effect.

But this is the first documentary to focus on the inadequacy of the organisation.

Though HFPA members are now forbidden from accepting freebies from the studios, they have many other drawbacks. Jayanti notes they are more interested in getting royal treatment from stars and studios than studying their films.   

Jayanti, who operates from London and Hollywood, says the stars who attend the event just want to have a good time.

What drew him into making the documentary on Golden Globes? "I love to look into institutions that have high visibility and find out more about them," he had said in an interview with rediff.com during the Toronto International Film Festival.

He calls the Globe a hollow trophy, and the red carpet ceremony an occasion for Hollywood filmmakers and stars to have a good time.

Jayanti says the association which reportedly makes it difficult for new members to join in is in reality a full-time movie fans' organisation. And these fans are more concerned about having their photo snapped with stars than actually watching films.

Jayanti even followed a Danish reporter who asked Angelina Jolie at the premiere of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life at Los Angeles' Mann's Chinese Theater, whether she likes Chinese food and what her favourite scene was in the movie.

Jolie looked puzzled and mumbled something.

'They have erected this grand culture around the Golden Globes, but the people on the inside aren't getting anything from it but photo ops and free shrimp,' Jayanti told Daily News.

HFPA members declined Jayanti's request for interviews in the documentary, Associated Press reported. Lorenzo Soria, HFPA's president, said he has seen Jayanti's documentary and he told AP that his group was right not to cooperate.

Photo: Mabel Pais