Lipika Singh Darai

Belonging to the Indigenous community Ho from Odisha, Lipika SINGH DARAI (India) is a filmmaker and editor based in Bhubaneswar. She studied at the Film and Television Institute of India, specialising in Sound Recording and Designing for Film. Darai has directed and edited several documentaries and short fiction films, often rooted in the region she belongs to and the Odia language. She won Best Debut Film of a Director at India’s National Film Awards in 2013 for A Tree a Man a Sea (2012). Darai has explored themes of social justice in The Waterfall (2016), a documentary about struggles to protect a dying waterfall shown in schools across India and humanitarian crises in Some Stories Around Witches (2015). In 2023, she received the Hubert Bals Fund for her debut fiction feature, Birdwoman, and became one of the ten creative talents in BAFTA Breakthrough India 2023.

Filmography

A Tree a Man a Sea (2012, short doc), Kankee O Saapo/Dragonfly and Snake (2014, short doc), Some Stories Around Witches (2015, doc), The Waterfall (2016, short), The Sound Man Mangesh Desai (co-dir. 2018), Backstage (2021, doc), Raati O Bhaya/Night and Fear (2023, short), B and S (2023, short)

More info: Wikipedia, Lipika Singh Darai