Indrani

Known by a single name, for her "Iconic imagery and visionary storytelling" (Huffington Post), Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri is a "leading director and voice for female empowerment" (Tribeca Film Festival). She is also one of the world's top fashion photographers, a social justice advocate, and a Visiting Lecturer at Princeton University. She is described as "Dynamic...at the crossroads of pop culture and critical acclaim" by the Lincoln Center, as it presented her major exhibition ICONS. Believing that artists as myth-makers shape the parameters of the possible, Indrani's work explores transformation, and the intersection of mythology and reality from diverse perspectives, to inspire change. Her work has won 34 awards including The Tribeca Film Festival 2019 Disruptive Innovation Award, Best Picture at the CNN 2018 Expose Awards, Best Picture and Best Director at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, and two Gold Lions at Cannes Festival of Creativity. Her work is exhibited in museums worldwide including the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian DC, the Brooklyn Museum, Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, and the Australian Center for the Moving Image, and is featured in the New York Times, LA Times, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Vanity Fair, V, and VICE. Raised in India volunteering with Mother Teresa, as an international teen model-actress she co-founded Shakti Empowerment Education Foundation for women and children. While studying Anthropology at Princeton University, her photography was discovered by David Bowie and Iman who became mentors and commissioned her first album art for "Heathen" exploring the loss of faith in grand narratives, later launched her directing career with her first major music video for "Valentine's Day" exploring the mind of a school mass shooter, which became part of the HBO movie "Bowie: The Last Five Years." A proud bisexual, biracial artist, winning the Max Mark-Cranbrook 2019 Global Peacemakers Award, "Wielding her visionary work like a weapon, Indrani is using her art and resources for social justice and change" (Soma), empowering women, the LGBTQ community, diversity and environmental sustainability. Indrani is Co-Host of the Global People's Summit during the General Assembly at the United Nations, a UN Women's Entrepreneurship Distinguished Fellow and Speaker, was Special Advisor to the UN Global Millennium Development Foundation and World Film Forum, and works with numerous NGOs; she directed the top Bollywood stars including Priyanka Chopra, Freida Pinto, Alia Bhatt, for Girl Rising India which became central to the Government of India's Beti Bachau campaign for girls; and she continues to direct Shakti Empowerment Education SEEschool.org and serves on the board of Saving Jane against sex trafficking. A prolific speaker at prestigious conferences and institutions, she was Keynote Speaker at the Harvard University, Carr Center for Human Rights Pride and Progress LGBTQ Film Symposium, at the Princeton University 2018 Creative Arts and Humanities Symposium, and host and organizer of Princeton's "The Art of Anti-Racism and Social Justice," and "Mythography, Digital Storytelling, and Counter-Colonizing the Heteropatriarchal Gaze." She is regularly interviewed for outlets such as HBO and CNN. She is also a Clubhouse "Creator First" for her Anthropology discussions "Sacred Realms."