Mom & Me (post-production)
Logline
Brief Synopsis
Artistic Approach
Accolades
Key Crew
Indira S. Somani - Director/Producer
Indira Somani’s documentary films focus on India and/or the Indian diaspora. Her award-winning short documentaries include: Life on the Ganges (2017), a film Somani shot, directed and produced, while in India on a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellowship in 2011. Crossing Lines (2007) is a personal documentary about Somani’s connection to India after the loss of her father. This film won numerous awards, screened in film festivals nationally and internationally, aired on PBS affiliates through NETA from 2008-2011. Both films are distributed by New Day Films. Prior to pursuing documentary films, Somani was a television news producer for 10 years, and a broadcast journalism professor for 18 years. Soman has taught broadcast journalism at four universities in the Washington, DC area, most recently at Howard University. She has also been a leader of SAJA, South Asian Journalists Association. Indira also earned her MFA in Directing/Production in the Documentary track at UCLA, her Ph.D. in Journalism and Public Communication from The University of
Maryland and an MSJ from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Jennifer Crystal Chien - Story Producer
Jennifer Crystal Chien is a documentary filmmaker with a focus on personal storytelling from underrepresented communities. She has produced and directed several documentaries focused on stories from the Chinese, Guyana, Polish, and Turkish immigrant communities, including Waiting for Bekir, Advayam, 3JahLove7, and one little bird. Her films have screened at film festivals nationally, including the Atlanta International Documentary Film Festival and Big Apple Film Festival. Previously, she worked as a Production Manager for films for PBS broadcast and appearing at Sundance Film Festival, including The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution and Freedom Summer. She is a recipient of the Center for Cultural Innovation’s Investing in Artists grant for artistic innovation and is a former filmmaker-in-residence with the Center for Asian American Media. In 2017, she co-founded Re-Present Media, a grassroots nonprofit that advocates for personal storytelling in documentary film and nonfiction media. Her advocacy and education work was recognized with a 2022 DOC NYC Documentary New Leaders award. She has an MFA in Social Documentary Film from the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Raquel Hagman - DP/Producer
Raquel Hagman is a Cinematographer with a strong background in both narrative and documentary films. Originally from Florida with strong ties to her Puerto Rican roots, Hagman graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BFA in Film Production. After graduation, she worked as a videographer/editor for the NBC local news affiliate in Cleveland Ohio, where she earned a regional Edward R. Murrow award for an investigative series on the opioid crisis 'Riders on the Storm' in 2018. Hagman has also been nominated for regional Emmy awards as a News Videographer/Editor. Hagman earned her MFA from UCLA’s Graduate Cinematography program, where she was the DP on several narrative thesis films and worked as grip/electric and a gaffer.
Myron Santos - Editor
Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Emmy-nominated editor Myron Santos got his start working for independent documentary producers, on projects ranging from Tibet-China relations to the architectural history of Washington, DC. Since moving to Los Angeles, he has edited in a variety of genres, from comedy sketches for Upright Citizens Brigade Theater to game trailers for Blizzard Entertainment to scripted dramatic short films. He earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia and is a member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Indira S. Somani, Ph.D. is an Independent Documentary Filmmaker. After a 26-year-career as a television newscast producer and broadcast journalism professor, Somani moved to LA and enrolled in the MFA in Directing/Production, Documentary film program at UCLA. Currently in production is a personal documentary about her role as a caregiver for her Mom who battles depression. The film reveals how much Somani and her mother rely on each other for emotional support. Other films Somani has directed and produced include Life on the Ganges (2017), a 10- minute documentary directed, produced and filmed in Varanasi, India, during Dev Diwali, when people from all over India travel there to bathe in the Ganges River. The film screened in film festivals in the U.S., India and Europe and won Best Short Documentary at the Berlin Independent Film Festival, and the Cannes Short Film Festival. Another film Somani directed, produced and wrote was, Crossing Lines (2007), a 30-minute personal essay documentary about her struggle to stay connected to India after the loss of her father and to maintain and preserve her Indian cultural identity. The film won numerous awards, screened in film festivals nationally and internationally, aired on PBS affiliates through NETA from 2008-2011, and has been used by more than 100 universities as a tool to teach intercultural communication in the classroom. Both films are in distribution through New Day films.
Somani’s doctoral research studied the media habits and effects of satellite television on the Indian diaspora, specifically the generation of the Asian Indians in the Washington, DC metro area, who migrated to the U.S. between 1960 and 1972. She expanded her research to study the media habits, acculturation, and social identity of the same generation in the New York-New Jersey area, San Francisco, Houston and Chicago. For the fall of 2011, Somani was awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellowship to study the Western influence of Indian programming in India.
While teaching at Howard University’s School of Communications from 2012-2021, Somani’s research shifted to study Black Broadcast Journalists and how race had an impact on their success in the newsroom. She has been published in several academic journals and has also co-authored two book chapters.
Somani’s academic career was preceded by 10 years as a television news producer, most notably with CNBC and WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C. Somani has also been a leader of the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), where she has also won several “Outstanding” awards for her coverage of South Asians in North America. Prior to teaching at Howard, Somani taught journalism at Washington and Lee University (Lexington, VA) and American University’s School of Communication (Washington, DC). Somani earned her Master’s in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University in 1993, and her Ph.D. from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park in 2008. Somani is expected to earn her MFA in Directing/Production from UCLA by Dec. of 2022.