Shreela Chakrabartty, Indo Canadian Film maker was born to immigrants and is a true Albertan. She has been immersed in filmmaking and documenting since early childhood. She grew up capturing stories on her father’s Super8 movie camera and audio cassette recorder. Gradually, her career took shape through mentorship and job shadowing with the help of the National Film Board of Canada, the Film and Video Arts Society of Alberta and on the sets of the local industry. She followed the advice of independent film hero, Werner Herzog, to invest in a sturdy pair of boots and travel extensively. This led to her breakthrough opportunity to record location sound effects for Deepa Mehta on her Best Foreign Oscar nominated film, WATER. Then she met her partner in filmmaking, Kash Gauni, and has never looked back. The pair keep putting out Shreela & Kash films like the Canadian box office hit thriller, ROCK PAPER DICE ENTER followed by LAKE SHORE DRIVE and many more to follow. In between, they have produced books, documentaries and web series. Filmmaking requires endurance training because there are so many moving parts and everything takes time and money.
She is trained in Bharatnatyam, a classical South Indian dance form and she draws from this ancient martial art to add interesting touches to her films. It informs her how to look for movement, drama and beats from a school of mastery predating Aristotle. Shreela & Kash love the global Indian space they inhabit. It frees them to tell stories without a colonial lens, without a regional lens and without a studio formula. Their contemporary world view draws a fanbase the world has not known before. Their TREK TO THE TOP travelogue series is a compelling examination of unseen forces starting with JAI MATA DI! A healing journey to a cave dwelling in Jammu & Kashmir where wishes come true followed by MIRACLE MAN OF MONTRÉAL and the power of prayers by Saint Brother Andre.
Their joy of filmmaking comes from more than just learning new tools. It is a way of life they embrace and the way they relate to the environment around them. To bypass divisive practices in culturally diverse communities and to avoid showcasing and promoting the struggles of minorities for the entertainment of the majority, Shreela & Kash, open a vista to a world that seems almost unreal because perhaps we haven’t looked at the world this way before. Stay tuned on YouTube for their upcoming adventure series #RidingWithKash.
“When posed the question, is this the best you could come up with? Zoom out to the big picture then zero in on a small detail to frame it a little differently,” says Shreela Chakrabartty.
