Shanti Thakur

Born in Canada, Shanti Thakur has been making award-winning films since 1992.
She produced and directed documentaries for the National Film Board of Canada
(NFB) for 8 years. Her recent documentaries are more experimental. She is now
expanding to fiction.

Seven Hours to Burn (1999, 9 min.) is a personal memoir of two different wars based on
notions of racial/religious purity experienced by her Danish and Indian parents. Seven
Hours to Burn broadcast on the Sundance Channel, won 10 awards and screened in
45 international film festivals. It screened at the Cannes Film Festival, sponsored by
Kodak in its "Emerging Filmmaker" showcase.

two forms (1998, 4 min.) explores gender through the simple, sensual gestures of two
hands. It screened in dozens of international film festivals and was broadcast on PBS
"Independent Lense".

Documentaries made for broadcast focussed on social issues such as
aboriginal justice in the Yukon (Circles,1997, 58 min.); interracial families through the
children's eyes (Domino, 1994, 45 min.); and cross-cultural tensions in a mixed
neighbourhood after a black-on-white murder (Crossing Borders,1992, 25 min.). These
documentaries have been broadcast in 22 countries and distributed in 17.

Awards include: Best Documentary Short Film, Cleveland International Film Festival; Gold
Award - Documentary, NY Expo of Short Film; Silver Apple, NEMN; Best Documentary,
Philadelphia City Paper Independent Film Contest; Director's Choice Award, Black
Maria Film Festival; Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film Festival. Other festivals
include:Edinburgh, BBC British Short Film Festival, Robert Flaherty International Film
Seminar, Doubletake Documentary Film Festival, Aspen Shortsfest and Tampere
International Short Film Festival.

Shanti holds degrees in psychology and media, as well as an MFA in Film from Temple
University. She was a Visiting Full-time Professor in the Film and Media Arts Department at
Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received a Pew Fellowship for the
Arts and Media Arts Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts.

Currently, Shanti is finishing Kairos, a narrative short film, which she wrote, directed and
produced. Kairos is about a woman who must choose between two contradictory
lovers and two different kinds of happiness. To be released September 2002. She is also
developing a feature film script Breathe. (09/20/02)

Seven Hours To Burn
A film by Shanti Thakur, 1999, 9 min., Color/BW
"A visually expressive personal documentary that explores a family's history. Filmmaker Thakur mixes richly abstract filmmaking with disturbing archi...