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sonali gulati
Sonali Gulati is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Photography & Film.
She has an MFA in Film & Media Arts from Temple University and a BA in Critical Social Thought from
Mount Holyoke College. Ms. Gulati's areas of specialization are film production and experimental filmmaking.
She has made several short films that have screened at over two hundred film festivals worldwide including
Canada, United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia. She has won awards and grants from foundations such as
the Third Wave Foundation and the World Studio Foundation, and recently won the Theresa Pollak Award for
Excellence in the Arts in Film.
curriculm vita
artist statement
As a South Asian woman living in the United States, I have found myself keenly
interested in the politics of “representation” in mass media. My interest in filmmaking
began through ethnographic films when I started asking questions such as:
"
Who has the power to represent whom?" Since then I have found myself drawn to
the kind of self, subject, and subjectivity portrayed in film.
I am most interested in making films that create a stronger presence for diverse,
under-represented, and silenced voices. My work fuses art and politics from a place
of passion for activism and determination towards social change. I often ask myself:
Why this film? Or more importantly: Why am I making this film? As a result, my work is
driven by deeply personal motivations that strive to strengthen the connection between
my self as a person (with social and political beliefs) and my work as a filmmaker.
As for content, I am particularly interested in working on issues of identity, in exploring
not just neatly defined categories of race, class, gender, and sexuality but more importantly
the intersections, overlaps, and spaces between these categories.
I find myself questioning, pushing, and crossing boundaries of genre (as a form) by
mixing traditional “documentary” with “fictional narratives” or even making the “fictional”
aspect of “documentary” more transparent. I have a very experimental approach to filmmaking
and have explored a variety of techniques and created films using a wide palette of aesthetic
choices. I'm not afraid to take risks and try different approaches, whether it means stretching
the idea of "representation" into "re-presentations" and telling a story through multiple
points-of views or whether it is taking 24 photographs each day for nine months and making
a film out of it.
I am drawn to the provocative and enjoy sharing narratives that are both transormative and
compelling. Ultimately, my goal is to not only find innovative ways of storytelling, but also to
create films as organizing tools, in the hope of making this a safe, sustainable, and just world.
Sonali Gulati
VCU School of the Arts
Department of Photography & Film
P.O.Box 843088
Richmond, VA-23284-3088
tel. 804.828.4775
fax 804.828.6469
email: sonalifilm@yahoo.com
© sonali gulati
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· Sonali Gulati · VCU School of the Arts · Department of Photography & Film·
· P.O.Box 843088 · Richmond, VA-23284-3088· USA·sonalifilm@yahoo.com·
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