LET’S TALK |

LET’S TALK is a conversation series featuring award-winning South Asian women and non-binary documentary filmmakers who get together for an intimate chat about their films. This is the behind the scenes dive into the minds of filmmakers who are committed ethical and artful documenting of lives. If you want us to organize any specific conversations, or hear from specific, filmmakers please write to us at info@bitchitracollective.or

Ep 5: Impact Screenings

Kavery Kaul & Miriam Chandy Meenacherry

On our latest episode of Let’s Talk, Miriam Chandy Menacherry, Director/Producer/Writer of From the Shadows and Kavery Kaul, Director/Producer/Writer of The Bengali discuss how films can be used as a tool to create an impact on our audiences and the importance of taking back our films to the communities who are featured in our films.

Find out more about their films:

From the Shadows and The Bengali

Miriam Chandy Menacherry, Founder Director at Filament Pictures is known for her brand of socially conscious films. Her recent award-winning films are From the Shadows #Missingirls (2022), The Leopard’s Tribe (2022). She recently won the Hatched Grant 2023 by Chicken & Egg Pictures (USA) for Impact screenings for her feature documentary From the Shadows.

The founder of riverfilms, Kavery Kaul’s work has been featured at DOC NYC, Telluride, London, and other major festivals. THE BENGALI was released theatrically. CUBAN CANVAS premiered at the Kennedy Center (DC). Restored by the Academy Film Archive and the Women’s Film Preservation Fund, ONE HAND DON’T CLAP premiered at the Museum of Modern Art (NY).

Connect with filmmakers here

@KaveryKaul and Miriam Chandy Menacherry

“It is just a matter of hacking your way through the forest to find your first backing that people who really do understand , who do care about your story and see its universality” – Kavery Kaul

Ep 4: Creating Content for Children

Samina Mishra & Priya Giri Desai

On our latest episode of Let’s Talk, Filmmaker/Author/Teacher, Samina Mishra talks to Director/Producer Priya Giri Desai about representation, inclusivity and nuanced storytelling in kids’ content.

Watch Samina’s film Stories of Girlhood and catch her reading one of her books, Shabana and the Baby Goat.

Priya spent most of her career in public television (PBS) making children’s shows, podcasts, games and more. Some of the projects she has worked on include Molly of Denali and Postcards from Buster – a documentary/animated hybrid series that explored different cultures and communities across the US and eventually the world. And here’s one she made in Chennai.

Connect with filmmakers here @pgirid and @findingenchantment

“The filmmaker’s gaze can be like a hammer that comes upon a story or it can be like a hummingbird, lightly touching upon your subjects.” – Priya Giri Desai

Ep 3: Filming Personal Stories

Shabnam Sukhdev & Bani Singh

Director/Producer of Taangh (Longing), Bani Singh and the Director of The Last Adieu, Shabnam Sukhdev discuss the process of making personal documentaries, relationship with their fathers and the traumatic past of India’s partition.

A graduate of FTII, Pune, Shabnam Sukhdev was awarded a national award for the best biological reconstruction for her 90-minute film titled ‘The Last Adieu’ and was nominated for the AMPIA awards in 2005 for ‘Stranger in my own skin’.

Bani Singh studied space design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. She worked in the area of Museum studies at the Virasat-e-Khalsa museum in Anandpur Sahib, Punjab as a gallery visualizer and content interpreter.

Connect with filmmakers here: @shabnamsukhdev and @taanghproject

“I was keen to engage the present with the past and how the conversation with our past can help guide us into the future.” – Bani Singh

Ep 2: Experimental Films

Sonali Gulati & Divya Sachar

Catch Sonali Gulati and Divya Sachar talk about their experience of grappling with the idea of home in their films 24 frames per day and Searcher. “Who has the power to represent whom? And who gets to tell whose stories?”

Sonali Gulati is an independent filmmaker, a feminist, a queer rights activist, and an educator. She teaches film at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts in the department of Photography & Film. Sonali grew up in New Delhi and has made several films that have screened at over five hundred film festivals worldwide.

Divya Sachar is a New Delhi based filmmaker, writer & photographer. Her first film, “A Short Film About …” is a documentary on unhealthy body images, and her second film, “Searcher”, is an imaginative search into the origins of her schizophrenia. She also writes films & teaches ungrad students.

Connect with filmmakers here: @sonalifilm and @culdivsac

“When films deviate from the expected ways of viewing them, they stand out. They give you a moment of pause.” – Sonali Gulati

Ep 1: Environmental Filmmaking

Mridu Chandra & Priya Thuvassery

Episode one of Let’s Talk features Mridu Chandra, Producer of “Becoming Cousteau” and Priya Thuvassery, Director of “Coral Woman.”

Mridu has worked extensively as an archival producer on various films. When she was approached by Director, Liz Garbus, she couldn’t wait to dive into the trove of Jacques Cousteau’s videos and photographs of underwater exploration. For Priya, the story almost walked up to her. Uma Mani, the protagonist of Coral Woman called Priya’s office and approached her with an idea to make a documentary on corals in India.

In this engaging conversation, learn more about Mridu and Priya’s latest projects that deal with climate change and the strong environmental voices in their films.

Connect with filmmakers here: @MriduChandra @PRIYATHUVASSERY