Shanti Thakur

Shanti Thakur is a filmmaker living and working in New York City. Thakur's films cross easily between documentary, experimental and fiction, winning 19 awards and broadcast in 22 countries. Her work has screened in over 200 film festivals, including the Montreal World Film Festival, Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival and showcased by Kodak at the Cannes Film Festival. Her latest film is "Sky People" (2008, 13 min.) & won Best Experimental Film at the LA Shortsfest, which qualified it for Oscar consideration. The film is a lyrical satire on class in New York City, 21 different characters race to be a sky-person; the elite one percent who live above the 13th floor. "Sky People" also won Best Narrative Film at Columbus International Film Festival and Best Narrative Film at the University Film and Video Associations Faculty Jury Award, Best of the Fest at the Chicagao International REEL Short Film Festival and the Platinum Remi Award-Experimental Film at Worldfest-Houston Film Festival. She began in documentary, directing films at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in Montreal. These documentaries focus on social issues such as aboriginal justice in the Yukon ("Circles", 58 min.,1997); interracial families through the children's eyes ("Domino", 45 min., 1994); and cross-cultural tensions in a mixed neighborhood after a black-on-white murder ("Crossing Borders", 25 min.,1992). She left the NFB for graduate school to expand her filmmaking into experimental and narrative forms, creating "Two Forms" (4 min.,1998) and "Seven Hours to Burn" (9 min.,1999), a personal memoir of the two different wars of racial/religious purity experienced by her Danish and Indian parents. The experimental-documentary, "Seven Hours to Burn" screened in over 50 film festivals, won 10 awards and was broadcast on the Sundance Channel. "Kairos" (18 min., 2002) a fiction film, was made possible by grants from the Pew Fellowship in the Arts and Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Fellowship. "Kairos" is Greek for the transformative moment. The film takes place between 4:07 and 4:08 p.m., which is expanded into 17 minutes in a woman's mind: she must choose between two different lovers, two kinds of happiness. Awards: Best Short-Audience Award, New Haven Film Festival; Best Editing, Rhode Island International Film Festival; Director’s Citation award at the Black Maria Film Festival. Thakur is in pre-production for her film "Red Tulips", another short film which keeps her lush, lyrical and quirky visual style. The story follows James, who must relearn how to live in a world where no ones memory lasts for more than a few hours. Everyday is a new beginning…like learning who his wife and kids are. She is currently Assistant Professor in Film Production at Hunter College – City University of New York. Thakur received her MFA in Film and Media Studies from Temple University, a BA in Communications from Concordia University and a BA in Psychology from Ottawa University. She has given artist presentations at Harvard University, MIT, Barnard College, Bennington College and Bryn Mawr, amongst others. Thakur has served as a jurist for the New York Foundation of the Arts (NYFA) and the International Emmy Awards. She has also worked as a consultant for Ogilvy and Mather.