Photo Credit: Ana Catalá
FILMOGRAPHY on IMDb
CREATIVE PRODUCER / DIRECTOR
Mridu Chandra is a New York-based filmmaker and multimedia artist. She is a BAFTA and Emmy nominated producer of award-winning documentaries and narrative films that have premiered at Sundance, Telluride and SXSW; aired on PBS, HBO, and Disney+; screened for members of U.S. Congress and the United Nations; and showcased at museums and film festivals worldwide.
Her documentaries explore topics of civil rights and peace, environmental and racial justice, LGBTQ+ history, and gender equality. On the scripted side, she has worked with Academy-Award®-winning directors Ang Lee and Danny Boyle and on the early independent films of directors Nisha Ganatra, Laura Terruso, and Amber Sealey, among others.
Mridu has demonstrated experience across a wide range of budgets and producing roles including story development and writing, line producing, post-production supervising, delivery, and distribution.
ARCHIVAL PRODUCER / RIGHTS & CLEARANCES
Her expertise as an archival media researcher and clearance specialist has served numerous documentaries, narrative films, and Broadway productions including Whose Streets?, Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, Shadow World, Regarding Susan Sontag, Steve Jobs (directed by Danny Boyle), Betrayal (directed by Mike Nichols), and Thrilla in Manila (directed by Ang Lee).
MEDIA EXECUTIVE / TALENT DEVELOPMENT AND DISTRIBUTION
Mridu 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 (with a focus on Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia).
CURRENT PROJECTS
Mridu is currently in development to direct the nonpartisan documentary SAUND vs COCHRAN (working title) about how Dalip Singh Saund defeated Jacqueline Cochran Odlum in 1956 to become our first Asian, Indian, and Sikh American Congressperson in history.
Most recently, she produced BECOMING COUSTEAU for two-time Academy Award®-Nominee Liz Garbus. BECOMING COUSTEAU was nominated for the 2022 British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) and received the Critics Choice Award for Best Nature / Science Documentary. It was released theatrically by National Geographic Documentary Films in October 2021 and is now streaming globally on Disney+.
For her work co-producing and archival producing CURED, she has been nominated for FOCAL International’s Jane Mercer Researcher of the Year Award. CURED premiered at OUTFEST 2020 and aired on Independent Lens (PBS) in October 2021. CURED received a $50,000 prize in the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, which recognizes excellence in historical documentaries, and the American Historical Association’s 2021 John E. O’Connor Film Award.
WAY BACK WHEN
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.). In both Montreal and Chicago, she hosted community radio programs on public affairs and the arts.
ASK ME ABOUT
Trekking the Annapurna Circuit to Lo Manthang, Mustang Kingdom.
SELECTED HONORS / AWARDS
2022 BAFTA nomination for Best Documentary – Producer of BECOMING COUSTEAU
2022 EMMY nomination for News & Documentary Research – Co-Producer and Archival Producer of CURED
2022 FOCAL International nomination for Jane Mercer Researcher of the Year Award – Co-Producer and Archival Producer of CURED
2019 Flaherty Seminar Film Fellowship
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
2012 New American Filmmaker Award – The Vilcek Foundation
2011 Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors Program – Spotlight on INDIA
2011 Tribeca Film Institute’s Tribeca All Access Program – Screenwriter of Adapted Screenplay for Abraham Verghese’s THE TENNIS PARTNER
2009 Co-Writer, “Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work”
2012 Blue Mountain Center
2012 The Banff Arts Center – Leighton Artist Colony Residency & Paul D. Fleck Fellowship
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
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