Meera Menon is an Indian–American director, writer, and editor. Her feature directorial debut, '' Farah Goes Bang'', screened at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was ...

in 2013 and was awarded the inaugural

Nora Ephron Nora Ephron ( ; May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for her romantic comedy films and was nominated three times for the Writers Guild of America Award and the Academy Award f ...

Prize by Tribeca and ''

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''. She currently resides in Los Angeles.

Early life

Menon‘s family is from

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South C ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. Menon cited her father Vijayan, a film producer and a founder of Tara Arts, an English cultural ambassador for South India that showcases musicals and films, as her earliest inspiration for filmmaking, using his camera to shoot films at a young age with her next-door neighbour. Menon says while her parents encouraged her to pursue the arts, her father advised her to look at it as a hobby. Because of this way of thinking about film, Menon did not seriously consider filmmaking as a career until she attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

, and took classes that were taught by professional filmmakers. Menon received a BA in English and Art History from Columbia, but while she was there, she began directing films and discovered a passion for the craft. She went on to receive an MFA from the

USC School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

Career

In 2009, Menon wrote and directed the short film ''Mark in Argentina'', a story about a governor searching for his mistress in Argentina. However, it wasn't until Menon released her feature-length debut that she started to get a great deal of recognition from the media. Menon's first full-length feature film, '' Farah Goes Bang,'' was described by Jennifer Mills as one that, "explores many genres: the road movie, the sexual coming of age movie, the political film, the buddy movie." Menon co-wrote the film with Laura Goode, who also acted as a producer. Not only did Menon win the

Prize for ''Farah Goes Bang'', but the film also won awards at the

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) – formerly known as VC FilmFest – is an annual film festival presented by Visual Communications (VC). It was established in 1983 by Linda Mabalot as a vehicle to promote Asian Pacific Ameri ...

and

CAAMFest CAAMFest, known prior to 2013 as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), is presented every March in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States as the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asia ...

. In 2015, Menon directed the female-driven

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for ...

drama ''Equity''. The film premiered in Competition at the

2016 Sundance Film Festival The 2016 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 21 to January 31, 2016. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 2, 2015. The opening night film was ''Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You'', directed by Heidi E ...

. In 2016, Menon also wrote and directed the short film ''The Press Conference'' for

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's ShatterBox Anthology, a series of 12 shorts written and directed by women. The short premiered on

's website on 23 September 2016. She had also worked as a director on the TV series '' The Magicians'' for an episode in the third, and two in the fourth season.

Filmography

TV series

References

External links

* *
Elephant Shoes Pictures

Interview with the Believer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Menon, Meera Living people American film directors of Indian descent American people of Indian descent American women film directors American women writers of Indian descent American screenwriters of Indian descent American women screenwriters Columbia College (New York) alumni Year of birth missing (living people) USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni American women film producers