Ms SHILPI GULATI | Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Ms SHILPI GULATI

Assistant Professor,
Mumbai Campus, Centre for Critical Media Praxis, School of Media and Cultural Studies

Qualification

BA English (Delhi University),

MA Media and Cultural Studies (Tata Institute of Social Sciences),

MPhil Theatre and Performance Studies (Jawaharlal Nehru University),

PhD Cinema Studies(ongoing), (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Contact

shilpi.gulati[at]tiss[dot]edu

shilpi.gulati1@gmail.com

Shilpi is a filmmaker, theatre artist and educator. She locates her practice at the intersections of documentary and performance, where she largely engages with community-based media practices, feminist histories and intergenerational memory. She is a two-time recipient of the President's National Film Award in India for her documentaries Qissa-e Parsi: The Parsi Story (2014) and Taala the Kunjee: Lock and Key (2018), which along with Naach Bhikhari Naach (2018), Dere tun Dilli (2012) have been widely screened across international film festivals, art galleries and educational institutions. A Fulbright scholar, Shilpi's work has been supported by the International Documentary Association, UNICEF, Public Service Broadcasting Trust, Ministry of External Affairs, and Khoj International Artists' Association. She is also actively engaged in campaigns against censorship, protecting national film archives, and developing support networks for independent filmmakers in India.

Documentary History and Theory, Theatre and Performance, Media Industries, Film Festivals, Public Cultures

Filmography

Made to Feel (12 min) – experimental video exploring the possibilities of intimacy across borders and processes of artistic collaborations within regulated societies, 2021

Naach Bhikhari Naach (72 min) – a feature documentary on the folk performance tradition of launda naach and the legacy of Bhikhari Thakur, the “Shakespeare of Bhojpuri,” 2018

Taala Te Kunjee: Lock and Key (75 min) – a feature documentary based on wives of recovering addicts in Punjab, India, 2017

Qissa-e Parsi: The Parsi Story (26 min) – a short documentary on India’s smallest ethnic community, 2014

Dere To Delhi (30 min) – a short film on the oral histories of a refugee community from Dera Ismail Khan (Pakistan) that lives in Delhi, 2012

Inside Out (26 min) – a short documentary on women’s access to public space in India, 2010

There Are No Borders Here (11 min) – an experimental film focusing on borders, identity, and nationhood, 2009

Commissioned Work:

Consulting Editor: Mirror, a feature documentary on acid attack survivors in India, 2021

Consulting Editor: Alice Boner Institute, Varanasi, for Patang – a video series documenting craftsmen and women of the city, 2020-21

Consulting Editor: Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), for their field action projects in Odisha and Rajasthan, India 2020

Creative Director: Advocacy films on rural education in the state of Uttar Pradesh, UNICEF, 2017

Director: Towards Change, training and advocacy film on the rural development program at Takshila Educational Society, India 2015

Director: See Something? Say Something, a documentary film on the role of theatre in action against gender-based violence, American Centre, Delhi, India 2014

Director: Jagori, a series of training and advocacy films on safety of women in public spaces, 2013

Director: Tisstory, five documentaries on the history of social science research and education in India, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, 2012

Publications:

Gulati, Shilpi 2022: “Our Films, Our History,” Indian Express, March 26, 2022

Gulati, Shilpi 2022: “A Difficult Year for The Indian Film Fraternity” FemAsia: Asian Women’s Journal, January 2022

Gulati, Shilpi. 2021.“Super Censorship of Cinema?” Economic and Political Weekly 51 (31): 8

Gulati, Shilpi. 2019. “Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, 2019: Action,” Media Practice & Education 20 (4): 390–92.

Gulati, Shilpi. 2017 “Book Review: Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar, A Fly in the Curry: Independent Documentary Film in India,” Social Change 47, no. 2 (June): 306–8.

Gulati, Shilpi. 2015, “Expression and Repression: Censorship and Challenges before Political Documentary Films in India,” Journal of Literature Studies, (January), New Delhi

“Lights, Camera and Action for Gender Equality: Promoting Gender in Popular Hindi Films,” funded by Department of State, U.S. Mission to India, 2021-2023

“Exploring Gendered Access to Digital Technologies among Resource Poor communities in Mumbai,” funded by the American Jewish World Service (AJWS), 2020-23

Actor and Workshop facilitator at pandies’ theatre – an activist feminist group working with creating theatre with children, women, and young adults. Acted in 15 stage and street productions, and facilitated workshops with a view to articulating trauma and creating self-expression on issues of gender, sexuality, violence against women and child rights (2007-present)

Working with Video I

Working with Video II

MCS Media Project

MCS Research Project

Contemporary Media Ecologies