OVERVIEW

With a career spanning over three decades, Sanjay Barnela is one of the few Indian filmmakers, working in the niche area of conservation & livelihoods. An early and enduring passion for high altitude mountain climbing and trekking in the Himalaya led Sanjay, quite naturally, to his choice of subject matter as a documentary filmmaker – the political interface between the environment and local communities. He has made films on a broad range of issues including wildlife-human conflict, customary rights and practices of pastoral communities, the Forest Rights Act and the political economy of water among others.

Sanjay began his career in Delhi, founding Moving Images, a team of documentary filmmakers partnering with political ecologists and scientists, who have produced a range of award winning documentary films. Having collaborated with over a dozen Academicians on film projects, he calls himself a “PhD Survivor”, on a facetious note! He acknowledges their role in helping him gain understanding In 2012, Sanjay joined the Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design & Technology in Bangalore where he heads Srishti Films, a centre dedicated to teaching professional non-fiction film making. The core spirit of Srishti Films is to mentor and guide a young generation of filmmakers, transferring to them not just technical skills of filmmaking, but the passion and sensitivity of working hands on, independently, on human interest stories in diverse locations. They have collaborated with organisations across India, Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia to make commissioned as well as independent student films. In a short span of thirteen years since Srishti Films (SF) came into existence, several films produced by SF have bagged National and International Film Awards.