Leesa Gazi has dedicated her career to telling stories from women’s perspectives. She is a writer, theater practitioner, and award-winning filmmaker who co-founded the Komola Collective. Gazi directed the multi-award-winning documentary Rising Silence, about the survivors of sexual violence of the Bangladesh Liberation War, and has created several counter-violent extremism shorts for a United Kingdom think tank. In 2023, Amazon Crossing published the English translation of her critically acclaimed Bengali novel Rourob (Good Girls). Gazi’s first feature, A House Named Shahana, won awards at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and BFI London Independent Film Festival 2023. She is also a founding member of the Global Survivors’ Network, SEMA.
Shuchi Talati is a filmmaker from India whose work challenges dominant narratives around gender, sexuality, and South Asian identity. Her feature film, Girls Will Be Girls, world premiered in competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Her short film, A Period Piece, about an afternoon of period sex, was selected for SXSW Film & TV Festival. Shuchi is an alumna of Berlinale Talents, and her work has been recognized by the New York State Council for the Arts and Région Île-de-France. She is a graduate of the American Film Institute. She lives in New York City and is a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, the Bitchitra Collective, and the Freelance Solidarity Project.
Shaun Seneviratne is a writer and director of emo movies. His first feature, Ben and Suzanne, A Reunion in 4 Parts, was shot on location in Sri Lanka and world premiered last March at SXSW Film & TV Festival. Seneviratne’s previous shorts have screened at Nantucket, Montclair, CAAMFest, San Diego Asian, and Bushwick. Based in New York City, he teaches at the Brooklyn STEAM Center, co-hosts the podcast Rohmercast, and runs Redacted Screenings.
Christo Tomy is a two-time National Award-winning filmmaker and an alumnus of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata. He is the director of Netflix’s true crime show Curry and Cyanide, which earned a Global Top #2 viewership and was among the top ten most viewed titles in over 30 countries. Tomy’s feature film script for Undercurrent (Ullozhukku) won the Cinestaan India’s Storytellers Script Contest, India’s largest feature film script contest. It was also part of Film Independent’s Global Media Makers Los Angeles residency, the NFDC Film Bazaar Co-Production Market, and the NFDC Screenwriters Lab.
Join in for these wonderful conversations, this Saturday & Sunday, 29th and 30th June, on our Show, Saat Samundar Paar at – 9:00AM,1:00 PM,5:00 PM and 9:00 PM – EST MeraSangeet Gold and at 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM, and 8 :00 PM – EST MeraSangeet USA/East.