Photo Credit: Ana Catalá
Mridu Chandra is a New York-based filmmaker and veteran producer of award-winning documentaries and narrative films that explore topics of civil rights and peace, gender and sexuality, environmental justice, and the law. Her films have premiered at the Sundance, SXSW & Hot Docs film festivals, aired on PBS and HBO, screened for members of U.S. Congress & the United Nations, and showcased at museums & film festivals worldwide.
Specialties include story development and grant writing, line producing, editorial and archival research, rights and clearances, and post production supervising.
Mridu most recently served as the founding director (2016-2019) of IF/Then Shorts at Tribeca Film Institute where she designed, launched, and managed a new film fund and distribution initiative to support the professional development and increased visibility of filmmakers working regionally across the US and around the world.
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.).
Filmography – Link to IMDb Filmography
2021 Untitled Jacques Cousteau documentary (producer)
2020 CURED (co-producer, archival producer)
2017 Ask The Sexpert (producer)
2017 Whose Streets? (archival producer)
2016 Shadow World (archival producer & post-production supervisor)
2015 This Changes Everything (co-producer)
2015 Steve Jobs (archival producer)
2014 That Film About Money – “We The Economy” series (producer)
2014 A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY (co-producer)
2014 Out In The Night (producer)
2014 Regarding Susan Sontag (archival producer)
2012 Himalaya Song (director/ writer/ editor)
2012 Electoral Dysfunction (co-producer)
2011 Women, War & Peace (coordinating producer & post-production supervisor)
2010 The Canal Street Madam (producer)
2009 Poundcake (released as The Dissection of Thanksgiving) (producer)
2007 Child Brides, Stolen Lives (co-field producer)
2006 Punching at the Sun (associate producer)
2005 Love, Ludlow (line producer)
2004 Let the Church Say, Amen (producer)
2003 Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (co-producer)
2003 Cosmopolitan (art department coordinator)
Curating / Programming
2009 Experimental Short Film & Video, ISAFF, Independent South Asian Film Festival, Seattle
2009 MONITOR 5: Experimental South Asian Film & Video, South Asian Visual Arts Centre (SAVAC), Toronto
Selected Honors, Affiliations
2019 Flaherty Seminar Film Fellow
2018 Women at Sundance and Women in Film 2018 Financing & Strategy Intensive – Producer of DEAR DIARY
2015 Hot Docs Forum Pitch – Producer of ASK THE SEXPERT
2013 Tribeca Film Institute’s Mentor to Filmmaking Fellow
2012 The Vilcek Foundation – New American Filmmakers Program
2011 Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors Program – Spotlight on India
2011 Tribeca Film Institute’s Tribeca All Access Screenwriter
2009 Co-Writer, “Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work”
Artist Residencies
2012 Blue Mountain Center
2012 The Banff Arts Center – Leighton Artist Colony Residency & Paul D. Fleck Fellowship
Teaching
2006-2011 Adjunct Faculty: NYU’s SCPS Film, Video & Broadcasting Department
2007-2009 Adjunct Faculty: The New School University, Graduate Dept of Media Studies & Film
2007-2009 Project Director: American Univ./ Center for Social Media, Documentary Ethics Project
2008-2010 Guest Lecturer: New York Film Academy (NYFA)
2006-2008 Lecturer: The “Made In NY” Production Assistant Training Program, NYC Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, & Broadcasting
2004-2005 Visiting Faculty/Head of Film Department: Beaconhouse National University, Pakistan
