Tanuj Chopra

Tanuj Chopra is an American filmmaker. His debut feature film, Punching at the Sun (2006), screened at the Sundance Film Festival where it was nominated for a Humanitas Prize.

Background

Chopra was raised in Silicon Valley.^[1] Chopra obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Semiotics from Brown University in 1999.^[2] Chopra completed his MFA (Masters of Fine Arts) degree in film at the Columbia University School of the Arts in 2007, where he received the School of Art's Deans Fellowship and the FOCUS Film Fellowship.^[3]

Career

Chopra makes his films under his banner, Chops Films.

Short Films

Chopra's first student film project was entitled Hate Crime (1998), which he made in the summer of 1998.^[4] As an undergraduate at Brown University, Chopra also wrote, directed and produced Uljhan, a ten-minute short film that played in festivals in New York and Los Angeles. In 2003, he directed, edited, and produced a short film love story entitled Butterfly (2003), which starred Tillotama Shome (Monsoon Wedding), was shot in New Dehli, India, won "Best Film" awards at the Napa Valley Wine Country Festival and the Ivy League Film Festival as well as the Audience Choice Award at the 2003 Asian Film Expo in Lyon, France, and screened at over 20 festivals across North America, Europe, India and Pakistan.^[5] Butterfly also won a Director's Citation at the 2004 Black Maria Film and Video Festival.^[6]

In 2009, Chopra directed a short film entitled Chop Chop (2009) starring Sung Kang, Tillotama Shome and Manu Narayan.^[7][8]

Chopra wrote and directed a sci-fi short film in 2010 entitled Pia, starring Tillotama Shome and Pia Shah as an android/cyborg, for PBS's FutureStates project.^[9]

In 2011, Chopra directed The King's Speech Parody LOL in partnership with Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) to highlight the 29th Annual San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival's focus on South Asian film and filmmakers; the film also starred Pia Shah, Rasika Mathur and Sunil Malothra.^[10] He also directed and wrote a short set in a dystopian future entitled Carbon Dated in 2011, which starred (and was written by) Chee Malabar.^[11]

In 2014, Chopra wrote and directed a futuristic short film entitled Teacher In A Box (2014) starring Lynn Chen, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Rebecca Hazlewood and Reza Sixo Safai. The film is set in a future where teachers are replaced with digital avatars of themselves, and was also made in partnership with the PBS FutureStates project.

Web Series

Chopra directed a web series, again in partnership with CAAM, entitled Nice Girls Crew in 2012, which stars Lynn Chen, Michelle Krusiec and Sheetal Sheth, and was written and created by Christine Kwon.^[12] Season 1 of the series screened in 2012, and Season 2 of the series screened in 2013, which also starred Leonardo Nam, Tsai Chin, Parvesh Cheena, and Anthony Ma.^[13][14]

Music Videos

Chopra co-directed, along with Prashant Bhargava, the music video for the Swetshop Boys' "Benny Lava". Chopra also directed the music videos for the rap tracks "Harsh Truth", "Unbearable Sweetness", "Now Is Too Soon", and "Hamas 2.5", all performed and written by Chee Malabar. He has also directed various music videos and music pieces for jazz pianist Vijay Iyer.

Documentaries

Among the documentaries that Chopra has completed include the Project Heart: Uganda series, which focuses on the World Children Initiative's efforts, process and mission in treating children's heart disease in Uganda.^[15] Chopra's documentary SAYA! Turns Ten is a commissioned piece about the Queens, New York based non profit organization known as South Asian Youth Action.^[16]

Feature Films

At 28, Chopra wrote, produced and directed his first feature film, Punching at the Sun (2006), about a South Asian teen named Mameet (Misu Khan) living in Queens, New York, who struggles to keep his anger in check in the aftermath of 9/11 and the murder of his basketball legend brother, Sanjay.^[17] It premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival as the first South Asian American film to be selected to the festival.^[18] At Sundance, it also was nominated for a Humanitas Prize.^[19] The film also screened at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival and the 2006 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, where it won the Jury Award for Best Narrative film.^[20] It has screened at over 30 film festivals and was released online in 2008 via Jaman.com.^[21] It currently is available streaming on Netflix and Hulu.

Chopra also started work on the Kickstarter crowd-funded indie feature film Nature Boy in 2011, which tells the story of an ex tennis champion named Nate Fox who finds himself washed up and disconnected in his home town at age 33.^[22]

Currently, Chopra is raising funds for an independent feature film entitled Chee & T.^[23] An early tagline reads: "A comedy about the only two Indian American dudes in Palo Alto who have nothing to do with technology."

Miscellaneous

Chopra serves on the board of the Palo Alto International Film Festival, and assists with the New Voices for Youth Filmmaking Initiative .^[24]

External links

• Tanuj Chopra on IMDb
• Chops Films
• Filmmaker of the Month - Tanuj Chopra
• CAAMedia - Filmmaker Advice from Tanuj Chopra
• New York Magazine - Head-to-Head: Ajay Naidu and Tanuj Chopra
• Tribeca Film Institute, Tanuj Chopra

References