Anuradha Rana

Anuradha Rana is an independent filmmaker, educator, mentor, and program leader who has produced and directed award-winning films internationally. Born and raised in India, her immigrant roots create the lens of a curious interloper at the heart of her films, where everyday characters push conventional boundaries. Her recent documentary, MUSHER, premiered at the Oscar-Qualifying Chicago International Children’s Film Festival and is available on PBS, Amazon, iTunes, and at libraries nationwide via Kanopy. Her current works in production include LANGUAGE OF OPPORTUNITY, a work-in-progress longitudinal documentary about how language informs personal and cultural identity. The film was selected for the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) Producer’s Fellowship, and the Tribeca Film Institute Network. She was awarded the DePaul Humanities Center Fellowship and a Senior Research Fellowship by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), University of Chicago, funded by the US Department of State. Films she is producing include BREWER a short poetic documentary in production that highlights women in brewing and normalizes their presence in a male-dominated space. The film was one of five projects selected to pitch at Tribeca If/Then shorts. She is in development on fiction feature, THE PUNK SHOW IN CHICAGO, which was selected for the Chicago Independent Producer’s Lab 2021 organized by Full Spectrum Features and the Department of Cultural and Special Events (DCASE), Chicago, and chosen for the Chicago Independent Producer’s Lab in 2021 and the Chicago Industry Exchange CIX:Lab | Chicago International Film Festival and Cinema/Chicago where it won The Pitch at the Industry Days. In addition, she is a supervising producer for A-Doc's Storytelling Initiative 2024, ‘Our Stories, Our Voices’, and the 2025 series, “Democracy Shorts (working title)”, a multi-platform partnership with GBH/WORLD Channel and advisory partner APIAVote. The initiative aims to produce short documentaries that challenge mainstream representations of AANHPI communities. Previous films include the short documentary, counter//balance, which explores memory and loss as dancers with differing abilities craft an inclusive performance. The film won awards for Best Directing and Best Short Documentary while it screened at over 60 film festivals around the world; and PRESERVES, a poetic journey into an Ecuadorian rainforest that harbors some of the greatest biodiversity on Earth, two indigenous tribes living in voluntary isolation and 850 million barrels of oil - enough to fuel the world for nine days. Her work has been supported by Kartemquin Films, IL Arts Council, Chicago’s DCASE, CAAM Documentary Fund, American Insitute for Indian Studies, Depaul Humanities Center, Tribeca Film Network, Full Spectrum Features, DOC NYC, and PBS. She is on the Steering Committee for the Asian American Documentary Network (ADOC), a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM) and the Mezcla Media Collective. She has been named one of Chicago Film’s 50 Screen Gems by Newcity Magazine, a DCASE Esteemed Artist, selected to ArtEquity’s BIPOC Leadership Cohort, and a DOC NYC’s Documentary New Leader. Most recently she was honored as a Rockwood Documentary Leader. As part of her work as a mentor and program leader, Anuradha was formerly the Creative Lead for the Diverse Voices in Docs fellowship organized by documentary powerhouse, Kartemquin Films (Hoop Dreams, Minding the Gap, Unapologetic, Finding Yingying) and the Community Film Workshop of Chicago (CFW) where she designed and led the annual mentorship and film development program for BIPOC documentary filmmakers. She has been invited to lead pitch development and coaching workshops for the Blackstar Film Festival, Center for Asian American Media, and the If/Then mentorship program, and regularly serves on film festival jury and grant review panels internationally. She is a Professor and Co-Chair of the Documentary Program at DePaul University’s School of Cinematic Arts, a Vincent de Paul Professor in Film, and a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award.