Fearless Filmakers: Exposing Social Injustice

Mary Dore is an award-winning documentary producer who brings an activist perspective to her films.  Dore grew up in Auburn, Maine and began her career working with a Boston film collective that produced independent historical documentaries, including Children of Labor (1977) which premiered at the New York Film Festival.  She has produced television series for Maine Public Broadcasting and 13/WNET in New York. She produced and co-directed the feature documentary The Good Fight: the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War (with Noel Buckner and Sam Sills), which screened at the Toronto, Sundance, and London Film Festivals.  She has produced dozens of television documentaries for PBS, New York Times TV, A&E, and the Discovery Channel. Her TV work has won Emmys, Cine Golden Eagles, and Cable Ace Awards.  She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and two sons. 

Nishtha Jain is an independent Indian filmmaker. She studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. Together with Smriti Nevatia, Jain created an independent documentary outfit Raintree Films based in Mumbai. Her films have received numerous awards and have been extensively shown in international film festivals, broadcast on international TV networks and regularly shown in schools and colleges in India and abroad. Her documentary Gulabi Gang, based on the life of Sampat Pal Devi has received the Best Film on Social Issues, and the Best Non Feature Film Editing at the 61st National Film Awards.

Vibha Bakshi is a National Award winning filmmaker and Co-Producer / Co-Director with Oscar winner Maryann Deleo. A former business reporter for CNBC, Vibha has studied Journalism and Broadcasting from Boston University and New York University. Vibha’s films have been aired on HBO and Lifetime TV in the United States. Her films include TERROR AT HOME, a film which was part of the United States Government’s Emmy Award winning campaign to Stop Violence Against Women and TOO HOT NOT TO HANDLE, HBO’s highly acclaimed film on Global Warming. Her latest film is ‘DAUGHTERS OF MOTHER INDIA’ is this year’s winner of the National Film Award for Best Film on Social Issues, awarded by President of India. This is the highest honour in Indian Films.

Anamika Chakravorty is the Cultural Affairs Officer at the U.S. Consulate General, Mumbai, where she oversees the American Library; visiting U.S. speakers; student and visitor exchanges; and a variety of thematic programs.  She joined the Department of State in 2004, and has served as a diplomat in Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Washington, DC, and most recently, in Vienna, Austria, at the US Mission to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.  In the course of her career, Anamika has worked on issues of human rights, trafficking in persons, domestic politics in host countries, and democratization.  She has also directly supported the Office of the Secretary of State, and negotiated counter narcotics resolutions and Ministerial declarations in international fora.  Anamika obtained her BA in international relations from the University of California, Berkeley, and her MSc in the same subject from the London School of Economics.  Prior to becoming a State Department Foreign Service Officer, Anamika was a civic educator for the non-profit Close Up Foundation. She speaks Bengali, French, and Sinhala.