CAAM is thrilled to announce the new faces of our CAAM Fellowship Program in partnership with the Asian American Documentary Network, or A-Doc, focusing on nurturing mentor-fellow relationships within the Asian American documentary community. The following four filmmakers have been selected as CAAM’s 2020 Fellows.
The Fellowship Program is a year-long career and project development opportunity for Asian American documentary film producers and directors as well as editors and cinematographers who are looking to make the transition to producing and directing. CAAM’s Fellowship Program goal is to create the space for a fulfilling relationship between veteran and emerging media makers and incorporate opportunities to participate in film festivals, documentary markets and other appropriate professional development events. Fellows will also learn the art of the pitch and have the opportunity to pitch their works in progress at during CAAMFest 2020. CAAMFest will also be a time when Fellows and Mentors have the opportunity to deepen their skills in the field and connect with the larger film industry.
CAAM’s vision has always been to support a community of media makers to nurture careers and creativity in the field of documentary film. Our new Program goal is to expand our reach and to serve makers from a diversity of backgrounds, identities and geographies, especially those that are currently underrepresented.
Jude Chehab is a Lebanese/American filmmaker, whose early career work has landed awards, screening in film festivals worldwide. Her credits include collaborations with Refinery29, She Said Films, The Players Tribune, Oxfam GB, and Doctors Without Borders. She was part of Abbas Kiarostami’s last student group in Cuba, where she worked on a piece under his guidance. She was part of the North Star Residency at CIFF and a NeXtDoc fellow. Jude’s richly visual and intimate personal shooting style has illuminated issues close to her heart including the refugee crisis and female empowerment. She has recently worked as a DP on films in Somalia, Sudan and Pakistan and as an AP on Sesame Street’s newest show for Syrian refugees. Jude is currently in early production on her first feature documentary based in Lebanon and supported by IDA and ITVS. She is based between NYC and Beirut.
Sarita Khurana is an award-winning filmmaker and cultural producer. Her feature film, A Suitable Girl, world premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, and won the Best New Documentary Director prize. A Suitable Girl has screened internationally at Sheffield, British Film Institute, Mumbai FF, & AFI Docs; and is distributed by Amazon (US) and Netflix (worldwide). Her work has been supported by Tribeca Film Institute, the International Documentary Association, NALIP-Diverse Women in Film, the National Film Development Corp of India, Women in Film, Film Independent, NY Women in Film & Television, the New York Times, and the Asian Women’s Giving Circle. In 2008, Khurana co-founded Cine Qua Non Lab, an international development lab for feature films, based in Mexico and the U.S. She received her M.F.A in Film from Columbia University’s School of the Arts, and is a member of A-Doc, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, and Film Fatales. Khurana lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Ligaiya Romero (pronouns: they, them, theirs) is a documentary filmmaker and cultural organizer working with collective memory and the decolonial imagination. Ligaiya was the Video Producer & Editor for The Argus Project, a transmedia documentary on police violence and citizen counter-surveillance, in collaboration with CopWatch NYC. The project was supported by Tribeca New Media Fund and presented at Tribeca Film Festival in 2016. Ligaiya was a fellow at Firelight Media’s Documentary Story Lab and is currently a member of the Queer Producers Collective. Recently, as a Visiting Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, Ligaiya worked with a group of students to produce a short documentary about the student-led movement to remove the UNC confederate monument, Silent Sam.
Anula Shetty is an award winning filmmaker and new media artist. She is a recipient of a Pew Fellowship and was previously nominated for a USA Artist Fellowship. Anula received her MFA in Film & Media Arts from Temple University and serves on the board of the Alliance for Media Arts and Culture. She is a co-director of the artist run video collective Termite TV. Her work has been widely screened at festivals and museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, The Flaherty Film Seminar, National Museum of Women In the Arts and the Pacific Film Archive. Current projects include Places of Power, an immersive VR documentary about places of belonging and power in North Philadelphia and Cosmic Egg, a poetic documentary set against the surreal landscape of egg harvesting, transnational surrogacy and the desire for procreation.
