Sudeshna Sen is a Seattle based filmmaker. She is the writer/ director of MEHNDI (2018) TURRET SYNDROME (2016) and JULIA’S FARM (2015). She is an Associate Producer on THIN SKIN (post-production). Her films have screened at Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), Outfest, Boston LGBT Film Festival (Wicked Queer), New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) and many others. Besides her own films, she has worked on several productions- SADIE (SXSW 2018) MOPZ  (SIFF 2017) and AUTO (TriBeCa 2017). Sudeshna serves as board member at Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum. She has a Ph.D in Classical Japanese literature. Previously she was Professor of Japanese literature and Visual Culture at University of Washington and University of Utah.

Her latest debut short film MEHNDI (2018) premiered at SIFF (Seattle Int'l Film Festival, and screened at over twenty festivals including NYIFF, Boston LGBT Film Festival, OUTFEST LA, CSAFF and NCGLFF. MEHNDI is distributed by Revry Channel. Her debut short JULIA’S FARM (2015) screened at Bumbershoot in 2015 and streamed on KCTS' ReelNW program 2015-2018. Locally it screened at Bumbershoot and Local Sightings Film Festival. She is an Associate Producer for THIN SKIN (2020) Sudeshna has also worked on several local films --Sadie (2017) AUTO (2016) MOPZ (2016), My Last Year With The Nuns (2014) and post-production ADR for Big in Japan (2014).

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I am fascinated by how women form friendships and nurture them.”

Q & A with Sudeshna Sen

​What interests you about female friendships?
I am fascinated by how women form friendships and nurture them. I find it fun and exciting to explore the complexities in the ebb and flow of female friendships, how and why women become friends, what is it that holds disparate personalities together. Is it possible for a twentysomething college girl to be BFF with a sixty year old retiree? What do they talk about? What do women think about as they go through board meetings/PTAs/soccer driving/work related travel and all the movements of daily life? How do they look out for each other? How do they take each other for granted? And most important, how much are they willing to give up for the sake of their friend?

Which films and directors influence and inspire you?
My favorite films that I’d take to a deserted island: Thelma and Louise, Blue is the Warmest Color, Il Postino, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Rashomon and Vertigo. These are the top five but there’s many more! Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa and Satyajit Ray are some of my favorite directors. I also like Deepa Mehta a lot.

What drew you to filmmaking at this stage of your career?
I have loved films from early adolescence. Growing up in India as a girl with decent grades, I was encouraged to think of academics as a profession. So I followed that, did a doctorate in Japanese literature and started teaching at the University of Utah. But in all my courses on Japanese literature I was including a hefty chunk of film resources. I found myself going through films of Japanese masters looking for ways to include them in my teaching. And I had to ask myself: was this to help my students, or was I looking for an excuse to watch films 24/7? That's when I decided to stop teaching, and choose filmmaking  as a second career.

What’s next for you?
I am writing a script for a feature film.  I also just finished filming a romance about the Indian community in Seattle. Washington state has so much to offer in terms of scenic beauty and technical innovation, I’d love to capture more of that beauty and energy in my films.