bhavana goparaju

film mentor

Bhavana Goparaju is a writer, cultural and social change catalyst and an award winning film maker, whose work bridges film, data, and community to imagine more collective and caring worlds. Born and raised in South India and now rooted in Minnesota, she lives and creates in the liminal spaces shaped by migration, Global Capitalism, and the contradictions of living within capitalist and colonial systems, where imagination and survival meet to build new, rooted possibilities.

Bhavana’s storytelling combines poetry, research, and community engagement. She approaches every idea as a living system, listening for patterns that connect the personal to the collective. Through Jeevi Films and Jeevi Foundation (“Jeevi”—meaning that which has life), she brings together artists, technologists, and local communities across continents to build ecosystems of care, justice, and sustainable creativity.

Her films blend cyclical storytelling traditions with contemporary cinematic forms. They have screened internationally at festivals including Berlinale, Busan, Adelaide, Cartagena, CAAMFest, AAIFF, and Jogja-NETPAC, and have reached audiences through theatrical releases like PVR Cinemas in India, on platforms like Netflix, MUBI, Movie Saints, and NeeStream, In-flight selections on Qatar, Lufthansa, etc., community screenings and Educational distribution at universities like Yale, Brandeis, UMN, Columbia, York to name a few.

A queer immigrant and survivor from a family affected by police violence, Her work grows out of resilience and solidarity. Her approach is to use existing tools—cinema, data, and collaboration—to make space for healing and ignite hope where systems divide.

Qualifications

Raised in a family deeply involved in local organizing, Bhavana’s community work began very early helping her parents and grandparents in collective action. Over time, this foundation grew into leadership. She served as Vice President of the Telangana Netizens Forum, one of the largest organizations integrating a digital movement bringing together people of Telangana who live outside to combat false news and create awareness about the history of Telangana with on-the-ground efforts for Telangana statehood and civic justice. She also led her district youth in the initiative Citizens Against Pollution, which earned the Clean and Green City of India Award. Later, she founded Indian Mutinies, a digital magazine that chronicled stories of everyday resistance, leading to tangible community outcomes such as improved rural school infrastructure through CSR partnerships.

Now in Minnesota, Bhavana continues to design workshops and cultural programs exploring migration, belonging, queerness, caste, diaspora and Global Capitalism. Her recent workshop A Body of Many Lands- politics of belonging, unveils the historical context of colonialism and gender erasure, while inviting participants to use personal memory as material for collective healing.

She mentors filmmakers, and data practitioners who want to tell stories of their communities. As a Guest Lecturer at the University of Minnesota and St. Olaf College, Guest Mentor for the Mama Papaya Film Sparks Fellowship, Panelist for the Creative Sustainability Summit (FilmNorth × Seed & Spark) and Stories Across Borders (Black European Film Festival), and Adjunct Faculty at Concordia University, she helps emerging creators design systems that sustain their stories and communities.

Bhavana believes that storytelling is both mirror and seed. One reflects our imagination; the other grows our collective impact. When story and data come together, they remind us how to care for the worlds we build

Focus Areas

  • Cultural and social change through film, data, and community collaboration

  • Storytelling at the intersection of migration, capitalism, and colonialism

  • Queer, feminist, and postcolonial perspectives on belonging and identity

  • Building ecosystems of care, justice, and sustainable creativity

  • Linking poetry, research, and community engagement to collective healing

  • Using storytelling and data for civic awareness and social impact

SKILLS

  • Film production and co-production (feature fiction and documentary)

  • Cross-cultural workshop and program design

  • Community organizing and digital movement building

  • Narrative strategy integrating research and artistic practice

  • Mentorship for filmmakers and data practitioners

  • Grant development, festival coordination, and educational distribution

  • Multilingual communication and intercultural facilitation

Teaching / COORDINATING EXPERIENCE

  • Guest Lecturer, University of Minnesota and St. Olaf College

  • Adjunct Faculty, Concordia University

  • Guest Mentor, Mama Papaya Film Sparks Fellowship

  • Panelist, Creative Sustainability Summit (FilmNorth × Seed & Spark) and Stories Across Borders (Black European Film Festival)

  • Workshop Leader, A Body of Many Lands – Politics of Belonging

  • Vice President, Telangana Netizens Forum (digital movement for statehood and civic justice)

  • Founder, Indian Mutinies digital magazine (community storytelling and CSR-based action)

  • Organizer, Citizens Against Pollution youth initiative (Clean and Green City of India Award)

LINKS

  • email: info@in-progress.org

  • resume: click here to view

  • Love Chaos Kin (Feature Documentary, 2025) – Co-Producer
 Screened at CAAMFest, Middlebury, Chicago South Asian, AAIFF.

  • In the Belly of a Tiger (Feature Fiction, 2024) – Producer
 Premiered at Berlinale; Winner of Adelaide Best Feature Fiction and Antares Best Humanitarian Awards.

  • Maadathy: An Unfairy Tale (Feature Fiction, 2020) – Co-Producer
 Premiered at Busan; Screened at Cartagena, streaming on MUBI and NeeStream

  • Ek Poshla Rupkatha (In Loving Memory…) (Short Fiction, 2017) – Producer
 India–Russia co-production; winner of six international awards.

  • Mantra (Feature Fiction, 2016) – Associate Producer
 Screened at MAMI Mumbai and IFFI Goa; theatrical release via PVR Cinemas.