Premendra Mazumder is a film critic, curator, author, and organizer. He writes extensively on cinema. He is the Vice President of the Federation of Film Societies of India, General Secretary of the India Chapter of the International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI, and Editor of the quarterly film journal E-CineIndia. He works for many national and international film festivals in India and several other countries as the chairman, program director, curator, festival coordinator and consultant. He has served the jury in more than forty important international film festivals worldwide. He is the founder of the South Asian Short Film Festival, and World Film Festival Kolkata. He has been honored with Ritwik Ghatak Award (Rajshahi, Bangladesh, 2016), Satyajit Ray Memorial Award (Asian Film Foundation Mumbai, India, 2018) and Vijaya Mulay Lifetime Achievement Award (Kerala, India, 2023) for his contributions to cinema on various capacities. He also has authored five plays, an anthology of short stories, two collections of essays. He is based in Kolkata.
Ashavari Majumdar a.k.a Vajrasara is the co-founder and Director of the MANIFEST Dance-Film Festival, India . She is an artist trained in classical dance and literary criticism and works across movement, text and image in different genres including . Ashavari’s current interest is the Asian dance-film. https://auroapaar.org/
T. Balasaravanan is an academic, theatre, and media professional with over thirty years of practical industry experience. His career encompasses over 100 stage productions as both a Lighting Designer and Director, as well as 15 years of experience as a professional Video Editor. His theatrical plays and edited documentary films have been showcased at national and international festivals.
Rajeev Shankar is a documentary filmmaker and photographer born and raised in Auroville, India. Rajeev began his storytelling journey at age 16 as a photographer. Rajeev’s creative work has now evolved toward filmmaking, where he focuses on real stories, real people, and highlighting stories often left untold. His visual background in photography continues to shape his cinematic style, blending striking imagery with intimate storytelling.
Gita While my long-ago academic background focused on French and culture studies, my world-of-work experience has been primarily in education and the social sector, in the USA, Haiti, France and India. Over the last five years in Auroville, I have worked as an educator with Future School and a writer / editor at Auroville Today Magazine.
Nitzan holds a MSc in Human Decision Science and has worked in research, entrepreneurship, and innovation for over a decade. Her experience includes founding tech startups, consulting on European R&D projects, and teaching in India. She now focuses on education and youth programs in Auroville.
