On this episode of the Film Sessions Podcast, we are excited to feature JASHANPREET GILL:
“My journey started in Punjab, a small province in the North of India, a land where female foeticide was rampant because people didn't want daughters. The proud gantry always wanted the heir of their family lineage. And I chose to be born there as the fourth daughter of my rebel parents.
I was a storyteller from childhood, so naturally, I fell in love with Cinema. Or it maybe is vice versa. I was in Love with Cinema, and it made me a storyteller. The love kept growing, and it sowed the seed of becoming a filmmaker deep inside me. But again, the land I lived in was far away from the magical lands of filmmaking.
So I worked hard to become what was in my hand. I studied hard and became an "Indian Civil Servant" in India. Suddenly life became so powerful and full of privileges. But no power or privileges satisfy the yearning I had in my soul. I may have fulfilled my ambitions, but My passions still kept me burning. And one fine day, against the odds, I wrote an application to the Indian government for Study leave, which was miraculously granted. I packed my bags and moved to the USA to learn film Making from New York Film Academy, Burbank, Los Angeles.
I have become a student again, walking to college daily, eating and living on a tight budget. I have sacrificed all the comforts, privileges and power I had back home. But it is all worth it. Because when I am making films, no matter how small they are, when I am saying action and cut, when I am a gaffer, a boomer or a clapper for my teammates, I feel alive. I know this is who I am, and this is precisely what I want to do for my whole life.
And I can't skip mentioning that because of NYFA, I met some most wonderful filmmaker aspirants from all over the globe. So now it is not me alone, but we are Indian-Punjabis, Spaniards, Americans, Italians, Ukrainians, Iranian, Nigerians, Portugues, Brazilians, Mexicans, and Peruvians daring to fulfil the American dream of telling stories to the world on the big screen.”