Surabhi Sharma

Surabhi Sharma is an Indian filmmaker, educator and curator, based in Mumbai, India. She has worked on several feature-length documentaries apart from some short fiction films and video installations. Her key concern has been documenting cities in transition through the lens of labour, music and migration, and most recently reproductive labour. Cinema verite and ethnography are the genres that inform her filmmaking.,

Educational background

Surabhi Sharma studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. She holds a post-graduate diploma in Social Communication Media from Sophia College for Women and a BA in Anthropology and Psychology from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai

Curating and teaching

Surabhi Sharma curated for FD Zone, a weekly programme of independent films and films from the archives of the state run Films Division of India. The programme was a result of curation by a small group of Mumbai-based Independent filmmakers. FD Zone ran successfully from 2012 until 2015. She co-curated a film festival titled, Shehernama: a city/film festival, in 2014. The festival traveled to a few cities and universities after premiering in Mumbai. She was the guest festival director of ViBGYOR Film Festival, 2014. Surabhi Sharma conducts intensive 2-3 weeklong documentary filmmaking workshops at the National Institute of Design Ahmedabad, K. R. Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts, Kottayam, Kerala. and Whistling Woods International Institute, Mumbai. She has been a guest lecturer at the School of Media and Cultural Studies Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Social Communications Media, Sophia College for Women, Mumbai, Film and Television Institute of India, Pune and at the Symbiosis International University, Pune.

Fiction and television Scripted fiction tele-films for the programme titled ‘Rishtey (TV series)’ and 'Gubbare' on Star TV in the late 1990s. Did research and scripting for various non-fiction programmes for television. 'Bhoomi' was a proposed series on the environment and 'Teen Talk' was telecast over a year. Wrote Hindi dialogues for a television serial, 'Sehar'. The programme was telecast on Star TV in 2000–2001. Direction and scripting of more than 10 episodes of a fiction programme on concepts of science for children meant for telecast, produced by the Karnataka State Government.

Filmography Year Title 2017 Phir Se Samm Pe Aana/ Returning to the First Beat 2013 Bidesia in Bambai 2012 Can We See the Baby Bump Please? 2011 Tracing Bylanes 2009 Labels from a Global City 2008 Pregnancy, Prescriptions and Protocol 2007 Jahaji Music: India in the Caribbean 2004 Above the Din of Sewing Machines 2003 Aamakaar (The Turtle people), 2001 Jari Mari: Of Cloth and Other Stories

Video Art Year Title 2016 Riyaaz 2015 Making Music, Making Space 2011 The Enactment of Exile in Mumbai

Awards The MPA-APSA fund for film development of 'Music in a Village Named 1 PB' (2015). Bidesia in Bambai, nominated as the five best documentaries at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2014 Special mention by the Jury at the Jeevika Film Festival 2013 for 'Can We See The Baby Bump Please?’ The Puma Catalyst Award in 2011 by the Britdoc Foundation. It is awarded for the development of the project titled 'Bidesia in Bambai'. The Turtle People (2003) was awarded the first Ramsar- Medwet Award at Eco-Cinema, Greece.