Kavery Kaul is an American filmmaker, born in India and brought up in the U.S. The stories she tells explore the shifting frames of who “we” are. Her character-driven works look for the intimacy, emotions and specificity of thought that give rise to truly universal concerns. Her directing and producing credits include Back Walking Forward, Long Way from Home, Cuban Canvas, One Hand Don’t Clap, and First Look.
Early life
Kolkata-born Kavery Kaul attended Ashok Hall School there. She moved to the U.S. at the age of six with her parents. Her mother Kanak Dutta was a history teacher, and her father M. Jan Dutta was an economist. Both were active in the political life of the U.S. and the building of community among Indian-Americans.
Kaul attended Friends’ Central School near Philadelphia and Rutgers Preparatory School in Somerset, New Jersey. Later, she received her bachelor's degree Magna cum Laude from Harvard University/Radcliffe College, where, as an English major, she discovered the poetry of Sonia Sanchez in one of the first courses outside the conventional literature curriculum. At the same time, she immersed herself in an unexpected course on the films of Satyajit Ray.
Career
Before setting out as a director, Kaul headed for Paris, finding France to be a fertile middle ground where she lived for two years. There, she learned the craft of editing at Scopcolor, a documentary production house launched by the French television journalist Roger Louis when he was fired by ORTF, the official French radio and television office, after the political unrest of May, 1968. Kaul returned to New York City to continue her work as an editor on films including Robert Richter’s Vietnam: An American Journey and Peter Schnall’s The Real Thing. “If you know how to put a story together in the end, you know what to look for when you’re filming. Editing teaches directing,” she once said. She launched her filmmaking career with the documentary First Look. Filmed in Cuba and the U.S, it captures the first cultural exchange between the two countries since the Cuban Revolution when visiting artists Eduardo "Choco" Roca and Nelson Dominguez meet theAmerican art world and a curious American public. Her other directing credits include Back Walking Forward, about one family's search for a new normal after their son's traumatic brain injury; Long Way from Home, an intimate look at three teenage girls in their first encounter with differences of race and class at “top” schools; One Hand Don’t Clap, Calypso music from Brooklyn to the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, through the eyes of Grandmaster Lord Kitchener and the groundbreaking Calypso Rose; Wild at Art, a portrait of Philippines-born Washington painter Pacita Abad; and Cuban Canvas, a story of artists in Havana in 2018, which was commissioned by The Kennedy Center for the festival, Artes de Cuba: From the Island to the World. Kavery Kaul has taught as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, City College of New York and School of Visual Arts.
Other Work
Kaul has always questioned who tells the story and whose voice is heard --- on or off screen. She was one of the first South Asians to serve on the Selection Committee of the Asian American International Film Festival. She served on the Jury for the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival. She is a co-founder of Manavi, the first organization created to stop violence against South Asian women in the U.S. Kaul is author of the articles “Of Slumdogs and Loveleen” for Women's Media Center, “Family Values” in A. Magazine, and “Cinema in India” in Filmmakers Newsletter. Her addresses the importance of stories that connect people.
2018 Cuban Canvas 2011 Back Walking Forward 2006 Long Way from Home 1995 Wild at Art ???? Soul Gone Home 1991 One Hand Don’t Clap 1988 First Look
Articles | Reviews | Interviews
,, SPAN Magazine, March/April 2016, p. 34-35 “The ‘New Normal’ After Brain Injury" by Lesley A. Sharp, “Conversation with Kavery Kaul” by Jennifer Merin, About.com by Jennifer Merin, Alliance of Women Film Journalists | , 25 May 2011 , Film Threat, 9 February 2006 , New York Newsday, 28 August 1991 , Women's Media Center | News and Features, 17 February 2009
