Shalini Kantayya, filmmaker, educator, and activist uses film/video as a tool to educate, inspire, and empower audiences. Shalini recently received the 2001 William D. Fulbright Fellowship to make a documentary film about political street theatre in India. Her recent documentary, MANTHAN ( THE CHURNING ) received the first prize award for best documentary at the Asian American Film Institute Festival (New York). Her films have been screened at international film festivals including the Toronto Inside Out Film Festival, The Ivy Film Festival, The MIX Festival, Vancouver Film Festival, The New Festival, Images and Voices of Hope, Paisley Gallery New York, and Chemould Art Gallery Bombay. Shalini has lectured at schools and universities such as The Convergence Institute of Media, The Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communications, and the San Francisco Waldorf School. She holds a BA in International Relations and Multi-Media Production at Hampshire College and is currently pursuing an MFA in Media Art production at the City College of New York. Shalini is currently working on A DROP OF LIFE, is a speculative fiction film based on a global water crisis, and CONNECTED, a documentary about how the call center industry is effecting the lives of urban Indian women.