while we watched
A FILM BY VINAY SHUKLA
LOGLINE
A turbulent newsroom drama intimately chronicling the working days of broadcast journalist Ravish Kumar as he navigates a spiraling world of truth and disinformation. As factual reporting is in freefall globally, ‘While We Watched’ is a dignified lens into the abyss.
meet the team
vinay shukla
khushboo ranka
luke w. moody
DIRECTOR
PRODUCER
PRODUCER
Vinay Shukla is a filmmaker, producer, and a leading figure in the Indian documentary landscape. His debut feature in 2016, the non-fiction political thriller, ‘An Insignificant Man’ (co-directed with Khushboo Ranka) was internationally acclaimed, set a new anti-censorship precedent, and went on to become the most theatrically successful documentary film in India. His short film ‘Bureaucracy Sonata’ (2011), won the HBO Best Short Film Award at the South Asian International Film Festival in 2012. His work has attracted distinguished partnerships with Sundance, DocSociety, NFDC India, Asian Network of Documentaries, IDFA, and IDFA Bertha. His work has been previously celebrated at Warsaw Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, BFI London, Sheffield Doc/Fest, among other leading festivals in the world. Vinay has also produced the globally renowned political strategy board games ‘SHASN’, and its sequel, ‘SHASN: AZADI’. Vinay’s highly-anticipated second feature film, ‘While We Watched’ - a non-fiction newsroom drama - is premiering at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.
A filmmaker and producer, Khushboo Ranka is leading ‘India Docs’, India’s foremost accelerator for non-fiction film and TV, which is mentoring and launching a new generation of creators. In 2016, Khushboo co-directed the feature length documentary, ‘An Insignificant Man’, which premiered to a standing ovation at TIFF and won several awards across 55 international film festivals. She helmed ‘ElseVR’, India’s first VR platform, and produced several films as its editor-in-chief. Khushoo also directed the VR documentary ‘Right To Pray’ (2016). Khushboo co-wrote the National Award winning fiction feature ‘Ship of Theseus’ (2012) and produced the critically acclaimed board game ‘SHASN’. She is now producing the newsroom drama, ‘While We Watched’.
Luke W. Moody is a creative producer and curator, developing new cinema and artist’s moving image with LONO Studio. His productions have been supported by Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation and BFI, and have premiered at TIFF, New York Film Festival, and BFI London. He was a 2021 Sundance Producer’s Summit fellow and 2022 CPH:LAB participant. His experience at some of the UK’s leading films and arts institutions spans across curation, production and commissioning, often operating in the space between contemporary aesthetics and politics - art of the real and in the present.
amaan shaikh
ABHINAV TYAGI
MAXYNE FRANKLIN
CINEMATOGRAPHER
EDITOR
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Amaan is a cinematographer, filmmaker, and game designer. An emerging DOP, he shot the highly awaited ‘While We Watched’ - a non-fiction newsroom drama, premiering at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Chronicling the working days of prime time news anchor Ravish Kumar, Amaan’s imagery has brought this pertinent story to life. Amaan has previously led outreach programmes for the documentary feature ‘An Insignificant Man’, and worked as a game designer on ‘SHASN’, the critically acclaimed political strategy board game.
Abhinav Tyagi is an Indian Film and Series Editor. He is recognised for his distinct editing style and his collaboration on the award-winning documentary ‘An Insignificant Man’, which premiered at TIFF, and was then showcased at 55 international film festivals. He has edited several VR documentaries, including ‘Yeh Ballet’ (2017), which was screened at the London Indian Film Festival. He has also collaborated with Discovery+ and Vice as a series editor and is currently editing a documentary series for Amazon Prime. Abhinav also led the edit room for the highly anticipated nonfiction feature film, ‘While We Watched’ - a chronicle of journalist Ravish Kumar’s turbulent newsroom in the backdrop of growing misinformation. It is set to premiere at TIFF 2022.
Maxyne is one of the founding Directors of Doc Society and shares responsibility for overseeing the film funding programmes. She also sits on the selection committee for the Good Pitch events and oversees the annual DOC Impact Awards; celebrating the films that have made the greatest impact on society. For Doc Society, Maxyne has been lucky enough to executive produce a number of award-winning films including Virunga, All These Sleepless Nights, Hooligan Sparrow, The Possibilities are Endless, The Square, Pussy Riot, Hell & Back Again, Ping Pong and Afghan Star.
JESS SEARCH
BEADIE FINZI
VIJAY VAIDYANATHAN
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Jess is a founding director of Doc Society. She is also a board member of the UK think tank IPPR, Kickstarter PBC and MSI Reproductive Choices and has an MBA from Cass Business School. . Before all that, she was a Commissioning Editor at Channel 4 and a founder of Shooting People, the online filmmakers network.
Beadie Finzi is one of the founding directors of Doc Society, a non profit film foundation with team based in Europe, East Africa, the Americas and Australia. For 17 years we have been fiercely championing and working to resource and protect the community of global, independent filmmakers. Having worked in documentary over 25 years, Beadie is in heaven in her role at Doc Society. In addition to grant making for artists and journalists and supporting their creative process, we help them develop impact strategies and connect them with allies in civil society. Imagining new models that will strengthen and resource independent filmmaking. At Doc Society, Beadie works across many of our global initiatives. Supporting practitioner led networks like the Global Impact Producer group, programmes like Good Pitch and Doc Society’s new Climate Unit focused on supporting transformative storytelling to advance a climate just and biodiverse future. She leads on training in our Impact Labs and developing resources for the field including the Impact Field Guide. She feels very lucky to be in this work.
Vijay Vaidyanathan is an Emmy nominated producer with a wide and distinguished background in documentary film and the arts. Vijay's independent executive producing credits include several multiple-award winning films and Television series that have enjoyed wide recognition in commercial release as well as at film festivals across the world including Berlinale, HotDocs Toronto, the Sundance Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival, the Tribeca Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival amongst others. His credits include the Emmy Award-nominated Meet the Patels (2014), Point and Shoot (2014), An Honest Liar (2014), The Seasons In Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger (2016), Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020), The Lost Leonardo (2021), Merkel (2022), Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer (2022), The Lincoln Project (2022) and While We Watched (2022).
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