2025 Oregon Media Arts Fellowship Application
Shilpa Sunthankar’s Work Samples & Resumé
Work Samples Reel
Short Film & Client Work Samples include:
1) A DAY IN COLOR – Writer, Director, Producer (2021, 9 min)
Four communities bring colorful, dynamic dance together in the great American desert, and all alongside the moving musical composition of Noah Simpson.
This short film relays my love for our many communities of color in close existence in our country, as well as my love for Jazz, and also shows examples of my stop motion animation employed alongside live action and other techniques. The film premiered at the Montavilla Jazz Festival and screened at the Hollywood Mini-Theatre in the Portland International Airport through 2024.
2) WORKING LUNCH – Writer, Director, Producer (2018, 8 min)
A regular workday for an Indian American, a queer professional, and a Trump voter is changed when they find someone has scrawled graffiti on their lunch restaurant. They must come up with a solution, if they can come together at all.
This short film is an example of my like for embedding socially relevant issues in easily accessible formats. “Working Lunch” is a snackable dramatic comedy addressing the proliferation of hate graffiti and violence directly after the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. It was awarded a Regional Arts & Culture Council Project Grant, had its West Coast Premiere at Whitsell Auditorium, its world premiere at Toronto South Asian Film Festival.
3) THE COMPANY OF THIEVES – Writer, Director, Producer (2012, 17 min)
In the ever-present battle of good vs. evil, a lone thief, Dex, seeks vengeance after he is left for dead in the woods by his partner. He makes a deal with the Devil and goes on a mission to kill his partner and get his loot back.
This short film’s cinematography is my favorite of all my work so far. Specifically for my upcoming proof of concept and feature film, “Generation Loss,” I visualize this look and feel. The film had an award-winning twenty festival run in the U.S. and Canada, and was licensed by ShortsHD, and IndieFlix for streaming.
4) A BRILLIANT FINISH FROM THE START – Director, Producer (2012, 1 min 40 secs)
I directed this client Brand I.D. spot at Fashionbuddha, where I was also a senior producer. We created this piece with Sockeye for the international marketing firm Waggener Edstrom. Sockeye came to us with a great idea of telling the story of a Waggener Edstrom employee as she takes a marketing project from idea to launch; the story would be told by animating live action through photographs... and in reverse.
This spot is a great example of the pixilation style I am looking to explore more in my current work, animating photography to manipulate story and time and time for a viewer. I loved this style from the beginning working with it, and feel that with further development and pre-visualization, it can be powerful in relaying the logic points of processing memories and themes.
5) BIOGRAPHY OF AN AMERICAN HOSTESS – Writer, Director, Producer (2004, 18 min)
As an Indian American woman, the Hostess finds herself the target of expectations and misconceptions from both family and the customers she serves, Indians and Americans alike. Only when she finally tries to get away from everyone does she encounter someone who understands her, though barely speaking to her at all.
Hostess is my first truly independent short film, and the first to be derived almost word-for-word from my own experiences. It is a story about the feelings of alienation of the second-generation Indian American woman contrasted with the rare, golden event of simply connecting with someone.
The film had an award-winning multi-festival run in the U.S. and Canada, including the New York Indian Film Festival, Toronto South Asian Film Festival, the Portland International Film Festival and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival where it was recommended a “Must-See” by the festival programmers. It received the Rumblefish Post-Production Award at the Northwest Filmmakers Film Festival, and was licensed for video-on-demand by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Screenwriting Sample
6) GENERATION LOSS - Screenwriter (2025, First 10 Pages of Feature Length Screenplay)
Logline: An Indian American examines her and her sister’s coming of age amidst bullying and abuse in the era of growing violence that was the early 1990’s. She discovers her need for her found family to survive all the ups and downs of becoming who they really are.
This script sample articulates my combining of live action with the pixilation style, as well as my reflections on my own experiences as an Indian American in exploring relevant themes such as social justice as a woman of color.
I will be extracting a short script from Generation Loss and creating a proof of concept with that over the next year, to explore the animation more in combination with live action, as well as for use in financing the making of the full feature.
See Resumé for accolade details.
SHILPA SUNTHANKAR’S RESUMÉ
My Resumé
Take a look at a summary of my career over the last 25 years. Happy to answer any questions or even provide references upon request. Enjoy!