“Maybe there’s a Bollywood version waiting to get out that we can put those in there,” he said, “but that’s not now.” “Seeing their reactions, this is gonna be a first for us.” ( Bill Clinton was among the audience at the film’s New York premiere.) He wasn’t too concerned about the details that didn’t make the final cut of the film. “We’ve never watched this film with an audience,” he said. Though Google gets the most credit in “Lion,” Brierley also relied on YouTube to watch high definition videos of the Khandwa train station that offered more visual details than Google Earth could, and Facebook to communicate with locals to confirm landmarks. He wanted to be as certain as possible before hopping on a plane and getting his hopes up.īrierley is very happy with the film, and was looking forward to viewing it in a theater with his family and a live audience. READ MORE: Oscars 2017 Documentary Shortlist Predictions: Anne Thompson Weighs In With Top Picks Though he never could have predicted the technology would be used in this way, Shah said that Google Earth tries to “focus on the good,” with NGO partnerships that track deforestation in the Amazon, coastal erosion levels, and find land mines, to name a few. He also noted the many artists who have used Google Earth to let laymen see what astronauts see, to make collages out of man-made structures, and to preserve graffiti and street art after it has been scrubbed clean. “I f you look very carefully you can actually see through to the other side of her journal,” said Shah. Viewers can see images of the water tower and fountain in Khandwa, the landmarks Brierley used to identify his hometown, as well as a hand drawn map by his mother, Sue, based on his recollections. It begins with the Howrah railway station in Calcutta, and even shows young Brierley’s flight path from Calcutta to Tasmania. Google Earth’s “Lion” feature allows viewers to both trace Brierley’s physical journey as a child and his interaction with the technology, along with personal insights from the family and anecdotes about various landmarks. READ MORE: Gaming the Oscars: How Actors Hedge their Bets When They Submit as Lead or Supporting Particularly because the connection between mother and son is so strong.” Who would want to do that? That’s such a crazy idea, but I took that on, and I prevailed. I tried to find one town in the billions of towns in India. I was trying to find a needle in a haystack. “ I was like that at stages, but you should have a shave and a haircut,” said Brierley. Shah was describing the point when Brierley’s search becomes obsessive and all-consuming, as indicated in the film by Patel’s long, shaggy hair and beard. “He knew he didn’t go through somewhere cold, so he cut out the cooler regions, and he knew he didn’t go through the mountains so he cut out that area. He brought in a heat map to look at temperature patterns.” Not shown in the film, Shah added, is that Brierley eliminated certain areas of the radius based on geography and weather patterns. Retracing his steps as an adult, he looked up the train speeds and created a search radius based on the estimated distance travelled. The more advanced thing he did was set up that search radius, and he was able to plot that using the measuring tool.”īrierley estimated he was on the train for 14 hours. You have the ability to mark up the map, you can attach titles and description, and he was keeping notes. “He started out looking at the satellite imagery like everyone else does. “He used a very deep technology within the product,” explained Shah. But Gopal Shah, the lead product manager for Google Earth, is more emphatic about Brierley’s achievements. To call the movie’s final reunion scene a tearjerker would be an understatement.īrierley, who manages the family business when he is not touring the motivational lecture circuit, speaks in modest terms about his journey. When college friends suggested using the new Google Earth technology to re-trace his footsteps, Brierley embarked on a multi-year search that eventually lead him to his hometown - and, eventually, his mother. After living on the streets for a few months, he was adopted by the Brierleys of Hobarth, Tasmania, and assimilated to island life, giving up hope of finding his birth mother. When he was five, Brierley (played by Dev Patel) was separated from his family when he fell asleep on a train in India, ending up fourteen hours away in Calcutta. READ MORE: ‘Lion’ Review: Dev Patel Soars In a Tearjerker That Earns the Tears - Toronto But this isn’t your average marketing tie-in. Google Earth, which plays an integral role in the adaptation of Brierley’s 2015 memoir “A Long Way Home,” unveiled a special feature Monday in honor of the film’s opening. Plenty of people think their lives would make a good movie, but Saroo Brierley’s experience - now in theaters with “ Lion” - was readymade for it.
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