Pankaj Rishi Kumar | | India

After graduating from FTII Pune, India, in 1992, with a specialisation in Film Editing, Pankaj was assistant editor on Sekhar Kapur's ‘Bandit Queen’. After editing numerous documentaries and TV serials, he made his first film ]Kumar Talkies’ in 1998. Subsequently, Pankaj has become a one-man crew producing, directing, shooting and editing his own films. (Pather Chujaeri, The Vote, Gharat, 3 Men and a Bulb, Punches n Ponytails, Seeds of Dissent, In God’s Land). Since 2012 he has been actively documenting in Pondicherry (a former French colony). ‘Two Flags’ (2019), ‘Janani's Juliet’ (India's entry to Oscars) and ‘To Die a Frenchman’ (in post production, selected for Yamagata Rough Cut Lab) are 3 films based out of Pondicherry. The films engage with the Tamil French community, its people and reflect on the historical past. His films have been screened at film festivals all over the world. ((Berlin, Rotterdam Yamagata, Busan, Visions Du Reel, Margaret Mead).) He has won grants from Hubert Bals, IFA, Jan Vrijman, AND/DMZ (Korea), Banff, Majlis, Sarai and Pad.ma. Pankaj was awarded a fellowship at Harvard Asia Centre (2003). He is an alumnus of Asian Film Academy (Busan) and Berlin Talents (2016). Pankaj also curates and teaches. He is a visiting faculty at Whistling Woods International. He is a regular mentor with Let’sdoc --A DRI initiative, Kolkata. ‘The Shadow of Man’ (script development) is Pankaj’s maiden feature. (kumartalkies.blogspot.in)

His candid, frank films depict, with extraordinary intimacy, the lives of ordinary people who are struggling to survive but who are survivors. Sean has a ‘Vérité’ approach to his filmmaking where he becomes involved, he intervenes and he asks the questions, which often provoke his subjects (and himself) into insights, thoughts, and realisations, which they never knew they had.

Sean’s work continues to inspire, to surprise and to fascinate audiences, right from his early films Working For The Enemy (1997) and The Minders (1998) (both nominated for a Royal Television Society Awards), to his more recent successes, such as The Liberace Of Baghdad, Japan: A Story Of Love And Hate, The Reluctant Revolutionary, A Northern Soul and A Syrian Love Story. The Liberace Of Baghdad, about Iraqi pianist Samir Peter, won the Special Jury Prize (World Documentary) at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005.