Prarthana, also known as PJ, is a filmmaker born and raised in Pune, India has a background in design and film production. In 2008, She graduated as an architect with a thesis project, a museum dedicated to the history of Indian Cinema. This started her journey as a filmmaker. In 2008, PJ was awarded a production fellowship from the prestigious National Film Archives of India for a research feature documentary on the Prabhat film company – an Indian film studio founded in 1929.
She was selected amongst one of the 50 candidates, from all over the Indian subcontinent, for the film appreciation course conducted by the Film and Television Institute of India. She also worked as an AD in the independent film, ‘Vihir’ (The Well 2008), that was nominated at the Pusan International Film Festival as best film and screened at several international festivals. In 2009, she then directed her first short film, ‘Vaatsaru’. It was screened at the International film festival of India.
In 2010, she moved to LA to follow her passion for filmmaking. Her short film, ‘The Day He Learned to Fly’, was screened on the national television, NDTV Imagine, and secured worldwide digital distribution. In 2013, she earned her MFA in filmmaking from the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles. Her thesis short, ‘Handle with Care’, was screened at several festivals all around the world and won audience choice for best film at 304 film festival.
She worked as a physical production manager supervising and consulting MFA, MA and BFA thesis projects for the New York Film Academy from 2014 to 2018. She also designed and created a ‘Digital Alumni Network’ for the New York Film Academy that included building the social website, creating and managing social media campaigns, and trained the coordinator to manage the project.
PJ has an extensive hands-on and versatile production experience. Narrative projects including, independent features, web series, commercials, and shorts. She has varied experience working as a line producer/UPM, first AD, and production designer. Her skill set comprises design and production management. The recent project she produced, TV pilot, ‘Vicarious’, won the best TV pilot at the Dances with Films 2019 festival, amongst several other awards and screenings.
She is currently based in Los Angeles and works as an independent filmmaker directing and producing, collaborating with directors and working on her own original content.
CONTACT
PEEJ . JOSHI @ GMAIL . COM
LINKS : WEBSITES and PAGES
Click on a montage of few seconds from each year.
The 2020 year in review.
The 2019 year in review.
The 2018 year in review.
The 2017 year in review.