It is no secret that here at The Yellow Sparrow, we are lovers of creators. We’re always on the hunt for artists who are doing new things in new ways and this week, we landed on a gold mine. Filmmakers all over the world are redefining motion pictures beyond our wildest imagination and it’s time we shone the spotlight on them. We bring to you some of the most talented and creative minds in the film-making industry.
Fazeelat Aslam
image courtesy: elle
Fazeelat Aslam is an Oscar-winning independent filmmaker, documentary maker, and journalist hailing from Pakistan, currently based in New York. She’s a graduate of Wellesley College, and has been working endlessly to, in her own words, ‘make ties between different places and different people’. In a career spanning seven years, Aslam has worked for and produced documentaries for channels such as PBS Frontline, Channel 4 UK and Al Jazeera. She won the Oscar in 2012 for her documentary short film Saving Face, about victims of acid attacks. She has also worked as a producer and a correspondent for HBO’s project titled VICE.
Aslam has been working endlessly in her effort to bring out and to represent voices of people who are often not heard or who can’t have their voices heard. Her work as an experienced and impeccable journalist as well as an Oscar-winning documentary maker has made her name stand out in the film making fraternity.
Jimmy Goldblum
image courtesy- zimbio
Jimmy Goldblum is the director of the critically acclaimed and award winning documentary titled Tomorrow We Disappear, a film revolving around the final days of the dying and disappearing Kathputli community. In his directors’ statement, Goldblum talks about the film as a sort of funeral to the dying community of Kathputli artists who are being transferred to transit camps. ‘In the end, we ask, what happens as these artists step into the unknown: what do they dream? What do they fear? What will they take with them, and what will they leave behind?’ the director’s statement asks, in the website of the documentary which has been hailed by Indiewire as ‘…the best documentary of 2014’.
Apart from his work on the Puran community of artists, Goldblum has also won an Emmy for “New Approaches to Documentary” for Live Hope Love, a documentary he had produced for the Pulitzer Center, in 2008. He also wrote, filmed, and produced “The Institute for Human Continuity”, an online narrative for the Sony Pictures’ film “2012,”. Goldblum’s projects have won an Emmy, a Webby for Best Art Project, and been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, and USA Today.
Adam Weber
image courtesy: zimbio
Adam Weber is an editor, director and writer who has worked for major film and television studios in both New York and Los Angeles. He has also co-directed, produced, and edited Tomorrow We Disappear with Jimmy Goldblum. Weber edited Michel Gondry’s Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy (IFC Films), an animated documentary about Noam Chomsky, which IndieWire named one of the top 3 documentaries of 2013. Weber was an assistant editor on Gondry’s The Green Hornet, and previously worked as the apprentice editor on Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds.
He has also worked as an assistant director in the HBO series In Treatment, as well as having had experience in working for various production and crew related work. Weber’s immense work experience in producing and directing, as well as his experience in editorial work makes for an interesting collection of stories.
Jaideep Varma
image courtesy: the hindu
Jaideep Varma is a writer, filmmaker and a screenwriter, known particularly for making and releasing the YouTube full length documentary I Am Offended on standup comedy in India and contemporary humour. He has made three other full length films including two other documentaries, one of which – ‘Leaving Home- The Life and Music of Indian Ocean’ won the National Award in 2011. His fiction feature film was titled ‘Hulla’ and was released in 2008 to much critical acclaim. He has made a documentray on Sudhir Mishra titled ‘Baavra Mann- A Film on Sudhir Mishra & Other Indian Realities’. Varma has also published a book titled Local in 2005, which centers primarily around the Mumbai local trains.
He has previously worked as a copywriter for various advertising companies and has written for various publications on a myriad of topics. His awesomeness doesn’t end in his multi-faceted talent pool; Varma also accidentally created an alternative stats system in cricket known as the Impact Index, which is now a part of Wisden India. His outstanding work as a filmmmaker, a writer, as well as someone who dabbled and worked extensively on the area of humour and the contemporary Indian standup scene makes his story exceptionally intriguing and not one to be missed.
Intrigued by these amazing personalities? Welcome to the club! What’s more, we have the opportunity to catch them live in action in Delhi itself. These are a few of the very many speakers out of a variety of panels that will be taking place at The Coalition from 4th to 6th of March. Get more information here.
