One thing I like about Nina Sudra is that she is communicative. 31 year old Nina Sudra is one such talent in Calgary who is working successfully in the field of Filmmaking. Says the director,“ I am a filmmaker first and then a writer and producer. I love directing movies.” Filmmaking is a tough profession but Nina learnt and understood  this art at a very young age.

She is a Canadian filmmaker with 10 years of experience in this line. She has to her credit several independent films, educational and corporate video, documentary and narrative projects. She is the recipient of the National Screen Instituite’s Drama prize.Her children’s short film Me, Masi and Mr. Clean recently won honourable mention at the Bayou City Inspirational Film Festival and silver for best short at the China -India Kids Film Festival in New Delhi.

For her filmmaking is a creative endeavour, as she can voice her feelings through this media. Way back in 70’s her parents had migrated to Calgary from East Africa.She remembers and tells me that in those years brown skinned people were called Paki. Her grandparents were from Gujarat who took ideals and customs of India to East Africa.Her parents brought the same values to Calgary. Nina was brought up in an Indian environment at home. As a young girl, Nina would watch a lot of movies in her South West home here. She loved watching black and white  Hindi movies when she was hardly nine years of age.

Unlike other girls of her age, she realised that film was a powerful media, it crosses boundaries and that she could express her voice, her perspective and her point of view through this media.  To have a solid  base in this field, she joined an intense two year programme in Television and Film Production at SAIT. She was more fascinated with the idea of making a movie rather than working  in television “ I thought and realised soon  that Television was not my cup of tea as it was limited to the box only.“    She also got a job at CBC at Calgary when she was just eighteen.

That job further provoked her interest in films. She wanted to learn more in the same so she straightway applied for Communications course and received a degree from Concordia University in Montreal. Some of her favourite movies that influence her film making are Kung Fu Hustle by Stephen Chow, Kamekazi Girls( the movie centres around two girl students from different backgrounds) directed by Tetsuya Nakashima, Yi Yi by a Taiwanese director Edward Yanez and a 1961 French movie titled Last Year at Marienbad. Nina likes to watch foreign Cinema and is greatly inspired by Stephen Chow’s movies partly because she lived at Taiwan having learnt the Chinese roots and culture there. She makes a special mention of Deepa Mehta who is best known for her Elements Trilogy Fire, Earth and Water. Nina loves her cinema. “ I have liked her films. Fire is close to my heart and the quality that I like the most about her films is that she tells the story without any pretension and above all she is an honest filmmaker,” tells Nina.

Nina doesn’t consult any other director to make a movie as making a movie comes naturally from within herself. “I trust my instincts,” she says quickly. She considers herself lucky to have a husband who is a Cinematographer and a filmmaker Patrick McLaughlin. “I respect him as a filmmaker,” adds Nina and tells further that she always consult her husband for guidance who is a partner in her projects. She is producing a neorealist movie with the help of her husband, she loves to portray the real circumstances on the screen.  Her short film Tigers at the Gate will screen at the Edmonton and Vancouver film fests later this year while Me, Masi and Mr. Clean will carry on to festivals in Chicago and California.  At present Nina is working on the production of a documentary called "Growing Up Among Strangers" It's a cultural initiative about racialized youth growing up in Canada balancing two cultures. She is also working on another short film called "the purse."

Somehow, she feels that the real challenge in the field of filmmaking is that there is a huge crisis of actors in Calgary but this has not wilted her spirit. From her point of view,  filmmakers never retire.  “Filmmaking is my therapy. It is my outlet to show my voice to people Every film teaches as if I am going back to school again,” she says recounting the pleasures of filmmaking.