Shorts By Shorties
MOHANA RAJAKUMAR
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LOGLINE
ABOUT THE SHORT FILM LAB
The Short Film Lab is a CSO (community service organization) based in Doha, Qatar working to create unique experiences for locally based female digital storytellers. Established in 2022 with a community small grant, our core mission is to train young women, 15-23, in filmmaking skills to an international standard. To date we have minted 20 new filmmakers, whose projects have screened internationally and won them Best Director and Best Short. Our work towards women's empowerment in digital storytelling has been recognized by Canon Middle East, and the North Film Festival, among others.
We mentor young female residents in Doha, Qatar, aged 18-21, in developing their professional narrative storytelling skills through the medium of short films from :30 seconds to 6 minutes in length. Completed films are showcased at local screenings to family, friends, cast and crew, as well as targeted portions of the general public including women’s interest groups and film clubs. Participants are mentored in the process of submitting their projects to qualifying international festivals.
Our program centers on the personal and professional training of young women in Qatar who are interested in the overlap between artistic storytelling and civic engagement. Our cohort of participants is diverse in backgrounds, abilities, and ages. Delivered in 4 key phases, participants are supported through the ins/outs of content creation through a series of scaffolded stages. The aim of the Lab is give them a platform with which to screen their projects within their country, as well as at international festivals around the world. In addition to learning how to purposefully create digital content, including short films, posters, and other supporting materials like film trailers, participants benefit from working on their English language spoken and written skills, as well as public speaking, teamwork, and project management related abilities.
Learn more here.
CURRENT FILM LAB FINALISTS
Mohana Rajakumar. Founder & Creative Director
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar is a South Asian American novelist, scholar, and screenwriter, with a PhD in English, who tells women-centric stories in unusual settings. In Mohana’s writing, audiences experience what it means to be brown and female in a supposedly post racial era. She creates humorous cultural content like in her solo show Being Brown is My Superpower, which channels a lifetime of cultural misunderstandings. Mohana was a semi-finalist in the Humanitas Awards and at the Austin Film Festival. Most recently, she wrote and produced Me Against the World, a collegiate romantic comedy, with diverse leads and a sports element which has been named a Best American Short, Best Romantic comedy, and an official selection at 8 international film festivals and winner at 5. She is also founder and creative director of the Short Film Lab, an incubator for first time female filmmakers in their teens and twenties based in the Middle East.
Stowe Story Labs alumni can initiate an application for fiscal agency here.
