Priyanka Kumar

About

Priyanka Kumar’s documentary The Song of the Little Road on Lifetime Achievement Oscar winner Satyajit Ray was awarded a Canada Council for the Arts grant. Kumar directed and produced the documentary, featuring director Martin Scorsese; late producer Ismail Merchant (Merchant Ivory Productions); and music composer Ravi Shankar.

The Song of the Little Road premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and got exceptional reviews in the Los Angeles Times during its run at the American Cinematheque where it was shown along with Ray’s masterpiece, the Apu Trilogy. As a rare honor, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acquired the documentary’s original masters and sub-masters for their permanent collection.

Kumar is slated to direct a 35 mm feature The Flicker’s Dance, starring Joe Mantegna and William Mapother. She was awarded the Panavision Filmmaker Award for the script.

In addition she will direct the feature film The Hungry Hour, starring Firdous Bamji and Padma Lakshmi, and another feature Sunflower Theory based on her Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award-winning script.
     
Kumar got her M.F.A. in Film Directing from the USC-School of Cinema TV. She was director of photography for A Piece of Pavlova starring Tushka Bergen (Barcelona) and John Randolph (You’ve Got Mail), which played theatrically in Australia. Her 16 mm short Jill and Jack was shown on public television in Los Angeles.

Her most recent short Barbara and the Goose won her a scholarship to the Film Program Cannes. She has received a fellowship grant from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Adobe Premiere Digital Video award, and was selected as an honoree by Film Independent’s Project: Involve.