My Melbourne Team
Mentor Directors
KABIR KHAN
Multi-award-winning director Kabir Khan is one of India’s most respected and sought-after filmmakers with a style very much his own. Khan began as a documentary filmmaker and is known for his brilliant cinematographic skills.
The renowned works of Kabir Khan:
Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), Phantom (2015), Tubelight (2017), 83 (2021)
ONIR
Onir is one of India’s most iconic filmmakers, often referred to as the face of India’s Indie Cinema and the LGBTQI movement. He is best known for his film My Brother…Nikhil, based on the life of Dominic d’Souza. Nikhil was one of the first mainstream Hindi films to deal with AIDS and same-sex relationships.
The renowned works of Onir:
Bas Ek Pal (2006), Sorry Bhai (2008), Raising the Bar (2016), Shab (2017) and Kuch Bheege Alfaz (2018).
RIMA DAS
Rima Das is one of India’s most celebrated filmmakers and winner of several national and international awards, creating two of India’s most celebrated films in the international arena. From Assam to the Oscars, Rima’s determination and vision exemplify truly independent cinema.
The renowned works of Rima Das:
Village Rockstars (2017), Bulbul Can Sing (2018), Tora’s Husband (2022)
IMTIAZ ALI
Imtiaz Ali is often described as Bollywood’s bard of young, modern love. The creator of a number of beautiful and complex films about love and identity, Imtiaz is a highly regarded writer, producer and director.
The renowned works of Imtiaz Ali:
Love Aaj Kal (2009), Rockstar (2011), Cocktail (2012), Highway (2014), Tamasha (2015), Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017)
Mentee Directors
Puneet Gulati
Puneet Gulati, actor, recording artist, host and writer. Puneet has produced, scripted and co-directed his first short, Cafe Choice which premiered at IFFM 2020.
Samira Cox
Samira Cox, 21 and lives with Usher syndrome. She is deaf and legally blind. Samira got into filmmaking through Hear For You, which mentors deaf teenagers and started a film festival. She won Best Screenplay for her HSC Major Artwork, made an animated film and now studies Screen and Media at TAFE.
Tammy Yang
Tammy Yang, an emerging filmmaker/creative producer, has a great interest in intercultural topics and authentic stories from different cultures and communities.
William Duan
William Duan is an emerging independent filmmaker. As a queer Chinese-Australian, he is inspired by stories heralding from other queer and cultural diasporas - particularly those from Asian voices.
Writers
Gregory Francis
Gregory Francis believes in celebrating real life experiences in his narrations, which is exactly how he landed a place in the My Melbourne team in 2020 with the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. As a former journalist with Times Internet, and previously freelancing for Architectural Digest India, Grazia.co.in and others, he developed a penchant for creative writing landing him into the profession of social media marketing. His love for interacting with people helps him pen down narratives resonating with real-life struggles, happy moments- capturing incidents the audience can relate with. He is after all a storyteller.
Monique Nair
Monique Nair is a Melbourne/Naarm-based writer and editor of Indian-Italian-Polish heritage exploring diaspora experiences, coming-of-age narratives and questions of identity and meaning. She is the co-editor of Mascara Literary Review’s anthology Resilience published with Ultimo Press. She participated in the West Writers program with Footscray Community Arts and is a screenwriter for My Melbourne, a VicScreen and Mind Blowing Films international short film initiative. She holds a First Class Honours in Creative Writing and a Graduate Diploma of Psychology. Her writing has been published with Peril and The Indian Weekly and she has performed poetry for the Emerging Writers Festival.
Nazifa Amiri
Nazifa Amiri was born in Herat Afghanistan and resettled in Australia in October 2021. She studied civil engineering and economy in Afghanistan. She was headmaster of Herat women's Cricket and worked with Herat youth organization and Afghan for progressive thinking. She joined Afghanistan national Cricket team in 2020.
She enjoys creative writing and sharing her lived experience.
Samira Cox
Samira Cox is 21 years old. She lives with Usher syndrome which means she was born profoundly deaf; she has some balance difficulties and retinitis pigmentosa and is now legally blind (but she still has good central vision!). She has cochlear implants which allow her to hear and enjoy music.
She started to get into filmmaking when she attended a filmmaking workshop with Hear For You which mentors deaf teenagers. She started to enter their annual film festival and has won awards for Best Screenplay, Best Story, and one year her short film “What Am I Missing” was selected to be shown in Hearing Australia Offices. She also produced a short film for my HSC Major Artwork which included an animated character.
In all these films she was a screenwriter, director, editor, and actor. She loves creating her own short films.
Shivangi Bhowmick
Shivangi Bhowmick is a Melbourne-based Indian-Australian writer. Discovering a passion for story-telling during the pandemic, she has since worked on a range of writing projects, navigating unique migrant perspectives and young adult themes. Shivangi continues to write with the hope of reinforcing South-Asian representation in entertainment and looks forward to the fruition of her future writing projects.
William Duan
William Duan is an emerging independent filmmaker. As a queer Chinese-Australian, he is inspired by stories heralding from other queer and cultural diasporas - particularly those from Asian voices.
Cinematographer
Brad Francis
Brad Francis, an award-winning cinematographer with 13 years of experience based and working throughout Australia and internationally.
