The AVID IDEALOGY SERIES The Future of Cinema Where the World Meets India

Dr Tico Romao is Head of International Development for the Faculty of Media, Arts and Technology at the University of Gloucestershire. He has been Festival Coordinator for the Viewfinder film festival and has authored several publications and his research interests include cognitive film theory, film style and digital cinema. He has taught at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the fields of film, narrative, documentary, soundtrack design and entrepreneurship. He is a member of the editorial board of The New review of film and Television Studies and has won The Motion picture foundation of Canada Award in film Studies. He has a BFA from Concordia University, Canada and a PhD from the University of East Anglia, with expertise in American Cinema.

Professor Jeroo Mulla has been the Head of the Department of the Social Communications Media department at the Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai and has been teaching photography and film appreciation for over thirty years. She has served as a jury member for the 57th National Film Awards, and is currently on the Advisory Board of Women in Film and Television (WIFT), Mumbai Chapter launched in 2012. She was appointed to the Film Censor Board as an Advisory Panel member in 1987. Jeroo was honoured in 2007 with a Fellowship and a Gold Medal by the Association of Business Communicators of India in recognition of her long and distinguished career in communication practice, the only woman to be so honoured in the ten awardees from all over India. She has spoken at various public platforms including at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), National Centre of Performing Arts NCPA, Max Mueller Bhavanand at the FICCI Global Convention (2002).

Pooja was born and raised in New Delhi on a steady diet of Bollywood films, bhangra music and spicy chaat. At the age of 22 she produced and directed a 13 part series on Shiya Muslims, Shiya-Ya-Ne-Hind, for I.R.I.B., the national network of Iran.This early success encouraged her to further her knowledge and she studied filmmaking in London, before procuring a Masters in Visual Media Arts from Emerson College, Boston. After graduation, Pooja joined IFP, as Managing Director of the IFP Market. She also serves on various screening committees and juries including the Emmy Awards, Asian American International Film Festival, Tribeca Gucci Fund etc. Her absolute dedication to give voice to the Diaspora of the South Asian Filmmakers. She started with the MIAAC Film Festival in 2002, and was the Festival Director till 2007 when she left to form FilmKaravan to produce, distribute and disseminate films from the subcontinent in the global marketplace. They recently released the critically acclaimed, groundbreaking film, Sita Sings the Blues.