Gurvinder Singh


Gurvinder Singh is an Indian film director. He is best known for his Punjabi language films Anhe Ghore Da Daan, and Chauthi Koot which premiered at Venice and Cannes Film Festival respectively. Gurvinder is an alumnus of the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India, Pune from where he studied film-making and graduated in 2001. He travelled extensively through Punjab between 2002 and 2006, living and traveling with folk itinerants, documenting folk ballads and oral narratives. It led to his first documentary 'Pala'. He continued to make short experimental works and documenting arts/artists for the next few years. In 2005 he was invited by avant-garde Indian filmmaker Mani Kaul to be his teaching assistant for a master-class at FTII, which led to a close association with the filmmaker who became his mentor. He translated and published a book of conversations of Udayan Vajpeyi with Mani Kaul, titled 'Uncloven Space'. His latest film is 'Infiltrator' starring Veer Rajwant Singh which is a 15-minute short story in an international omnibus called 'In the same garden'

Career

His first short film Pala was a documentary based on one of the Punjabi folk singers and was sponsored by India Foundation for the Arts. He directed his first fiction feature in Punjabi, Anhe Ghore Da Daan in 2011. The film, based on the novel of the same name by well-known Punjabi writer Gurdial Singh, dealt with the angst and distress of the marginalised lower caste in Punjab. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and screened at various festivals including Rotterdam, Busan, London, Munich, etc., besides releasing at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. It won the 'Special Jury Award' at Abu Dhabi Film Festival, and the 'Golden Peacock' for Best Film at the International Film Festival of India, Goa, in 2012. It also won three National Awards in India, including National Film Award for Best Direction and National Film Award for Best Cinematography’ at the 59th National Film Awards presented on 3 May 2012.The award consisted of 'Golden Lotus Award ', a certificate and a cash prize of /-. The jury presented the awards for,
His second feature Chauthi Koot, an Indo-French co-production, premiered in 'Un Certain Regard' competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015. Based on two short stories by Punjabi writer Waryam Singh Sandhu, the film explores the fear, mistrust and paranoia in Punjab in the background of the militant unrest in the 1980s. The New York Times write in one review,
The film has travelled to various international festivals and won the 'Grand Prix' at the Belgrade Auteur Film Festival, the Singapore International Film Festival Silver Screen Award for Best Asian Feature Film. and the 'Golden Gateway' for Best Indian Film at the Mumbai Film Festival. It received the National Award for 'Best Punjabi Film' in 2015. The film recently had a commercial release in France and is due to release in India in August 2016.
He recently completed a travelogue film on the well-known Punjabi poet and friend Amarjit Chandan, titled Awaazan. The film follows the poet's meetings with old friends and comrades through East Punjab and culminates in a meeting with John Berger in France.
He was invited by a Turkish production house to direct a short film as part of an international omnibus of ten short films from ten countries. The film titled Ghuspaithia premiered in 2016 as part of the omnibus titled 'In The Same Garden'.
He has also directed music videos for singers Rabbi Shergill and Jasbir Jassi for their respective renditions of Punjabi folk song Jugni.
Gurvinder is currently working on his third feature film Khanaur. It is set in Baragran, a remote village in Himachal and is mostly shot in the local Pahari dialect. It will be premiering around mid 2019. "The film captures the ebbs and flows of a Himalayan village in flux: the rural Himachali culture contrasted with the region’s emergence as a destination for paragliding."

Filmography

Awards

; 59th National Film Awards
; 63rd National Film Awards
; Others