About

Mridu Chandra was born in New Delhi and raised in Virginia, a nice place to grow up, and where she started making storyboards for a cardboard television in the second grade. She lived in Montreal and Chicago before coming to New York.

She has been producing social issue documentaries and narrative films for the past decade. She co-produced “Brother Outsider” about late civil rights and peace activist Bayard Rustin, and produced “Let the Church Say, Amen,” a verité film about faith and self-empowerment in Washington D.C. Both films aired on public television and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. “Let the Church Say, Amen” was selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as one of the most outstanding documentaries of 2004. On the narrative front, she has produced the feature length narrative film “Poundcake” which premiered at AFI-LA and is traveling the festival circuit, winning 3 Best Film Awards, 2 Audience Awards, and 1 Best Original Screenplay Award.

As an educator, she has taught documentary courses at The New School in the Graduate Media Studies department, at NYU in the SCPS’s Department of Design, Digital Arts, and Film, and in the NYC “Made in NY PA training Program,” providing skill development and mentorship for individuals from diverse communities seeking entry level positions in the NY film and television industry. She completed a teaching residency in Lahore, where she created curriculum for and established Pakistan’s first university level film & video program.

Prior to her filmmaking career, she studied medical anthropology and South Asian studies at the University of Chicago (M.A.) and at McGill University (B.A.).