Shaan I. Memon

Filmmaker- Actor- Singer Shaan Memon was born in Ahmedabad, India to Nartan Rajpriya, a lecturer of geography. And Ibrahim Memon, a fashion designer, businessman and visiting faculty in well known design institutes in India.

Since childhood he's been interested in the film-craft since it requires one to have knowledge and understanding of all other communication and performing art skills. It also requires one to have great understanding and sensitivity towards the world in general and surroundings.

Initially he was trained in Indian Classical music as a Singer/ Vocalist and Western music as a Rhythm Guitarist. He has also performed as an Actor in many theaters professionally and non-professionally. Some of the famous places he has performed are Natrani, Cafe Unplugged, Rifle Club and Lions Club of Karnavati in India. In music he has performed and love performing Folk, Sufi, Country, Thrash Metal and old Rock & Roll style of music.

Having interest in performing arts he wanted to elevate it to the next level. Also he was intrigued by the films of ace filmmakers such as George Lucas, Raj Kapoor, Akira Kurosawa and many more. He decided to pursue the career of a filmmaker.

He got his Bachelor in Film & Video Design degree in 2012 from MIT Institute of Design, Pune, India after finishing a 4 and a half year of study course. Achieved his Master of Fine Arts in Motion Pictures & Television specializing in Film Direction in 2017 from Academy of Art University, San Francisco, USA after finishing 3 year of study course.

Professionally he started filmmaking from June 2009 when he made his first documentary film "Inspiring Hiware". It was based on a village called Hiware in Maharashtra, India. The documentary was about the complete transformation of the village from a drought prone patch to one among India's wealthiest villages. A success story of the strong efforts by the village people for the village people. He produced, wrote, directed, edited, videographed and narrated the documentary myself. The film got positive reviews by the village panchayat, residents of Hiware and his mentors in filmmaking.

In 2010 and 2011, he won three back to back inter-college film awards in 48 hour film competitions held in RGB Design Festival 2010 by National Institute of Design, India and Quasar Design Festival 2010 and 2011 by MIT Institute of Design, India. "False Beat (2010)" won first prize, "What's Inside That Box? (2010)" won second prize and "The Missing Ingredient (2011)" won the jury award respectively. It gave him a huge needed confidence and belief in his abilities on filmcraft which helped him towards further success in the field.

In 2011 he made another big project which was a documentary on Darpana Academy of Performing Arts. Founded by Mrinalini Sarabhai (3rd highest civilian award winner Indian Classical dancer) and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai (2nd highest civilian award winner Indian Space scientist). It has crossed over 36800 views on Youtube so far.

During his internship at Digital Spice Studios Pvt Ltd. he made a documentary on "Waste Management of India". Did thorough research and interviewed key people in the process of waste management such as government officials and workers from Pune Municipal Corporation, environmentalists and rag pickers. The movie earned positive reviews from his mentors.

His next big project was a documentary called "Purpose Driven Study on Dharoi Canal Command Area" he made for CEPT University with the funding of World Bank which involved scientists and researchers from GWRDC (Gujarat Water Resource Development Corporation), PRL (Physical Research Laboratory) and CEPT (Center for Environmental Planning and Technology). By GWRDC, the area near Dharoi Canal Command area in Gujarat, India was found as water logged. Thousands of acres of fertile land was being wasted. They gave the project to find the solutions to CEPT's department of Geomatics and Space Administration under World Bank's aid of Hydrology Project 2. Having seen his other government and environment documentary projects, CEPT officials gave the project to him to make a documentary on it. He had to literally study from the researchers and scientists for a month understanding their process. It was a huge and tough task for him to decipher it and make the documentary in easy to understand film language which was to be seen by farmers, politicians, researchers and scientists all over the world. This documentary shows the research from the grass-root level to the findings of solutions and the betterment of the future farmers all over the world. The film is currently being shown in international seminars.

To gain further knowledge of international cinema, he moved to the USA for his further studies in September 2013 to pursue MFA in film direction from Academy of Art University, San Francisco. Here as well, one screenplay and two short films which he wrote, directed and edited won a total of 8 international awards and nominations. "The Unreal (2016) (short film, horror)" was nominated for: 1) Canada's World International Film Festival (2017) under best American film and best actor categories. 2) Egypt International Film Festival (2017) under best horror short film category 3) Fake Flesh Film Festival (2017) under best horror short film category.

"Bullied (2017) (drama, short screenplay)" was nominated for: 1) Oxford Film Festival, USA (2018) under best short screenplay award and was selected as semi-finalist 2) Oaxaca International Film Festival, Mexico (2017) under best emerging writers award and best overall script award categories 3) Urban Mediamakers Film Festival, USA (2017) under best short script award category

"Fitting In (2018) (drama, short film)" , which was his post graduation film as well, won the Bronze Remi Award at Worldfest Houston, Texas (2018) under best student short film category. The Remi Award is so prestigious that it was won by ace filmmakers such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and many more in the past. The film also got a nomination at Raw Science Film Festival, Santa Barbara (2017) under best student short film category. The film festivals and award journey continued even after his post graduation. He won 5 more awards and nominations for two of his screenplays, one of them was a feature length screenplay. "The Prey: Chapter One- Searching (2020) (Action, Short Screenplay)" won Marina del Rey Film Festival, Los Angeles (2020) under Best short thriller screenplay category. Also got a nomination at The Monkey Bread Tree Film Awards, UK (2020) under best genre script category.

"Ship of Infinity (2020) (Adventure, Sci-fi, feature length screenplay)" won the Prix Royal monthly Screenplay Awards, Paris, France (2020) under best work in progress category. Got nominated for Script and Storyboard Showcase, Los Angeles (2020) under best treatment category and also got nominated for Festival Angaelica, California (2020) under in-development pitch session category.

In 2020 he edited the theatrical trailer of upcoming feature film "Khape", produced by Aditya Lakhia, prominent actor of Oscar nominated film "Lagaan". The trailer was a success and it helped the film achieve many international awards.

Due to all this success, he was interviewed and published by famous film articles such as International Film Review, Tinsel Town News Now, Front Line Views, Entertainment LA, Medium and Let's Talk Art India.

With all these accolades and achievements he was granted the prestigious O1b visa by the US government which is given to people with extraordinary abilities and achievements in the field of motion pictures and television in 2018. He renewed it in 2022 and is currently working in the USA under the same visa category.

In his 9 years of stay in the USA (as of 2022), He's worked on a variety of film and video projects including feature films, short films, theatrical trailers, documentaries, music videos, corporate videos, promotional videos, commercials, educational videos, weddings, social media marketing videos, product based marketing videos, e-marketing videos and many more.

His strong clientele includes big and famous companies like Salesforce, DIY.org, UCSF (University of California San Francisco), World Bank, The Great Dickens Christmas Fair, CSFPS (California Society of Facial Plastic Surgery), Future Plc, NTWRK, Kast Media Inc, Chris Cox Horsemanship and many more.

He considers himself a storyteller. When it comes to handling every aspect of a film/ video project from pre production, production to post production, He's a one man army who can write, direct, edit and shoot professionally and lead the project to success. He's also a good team player when it comes to working on multiple projects and teams at the same time giving enough attention to each project reaching the goal.

He brings more than 13 years of passion (as of 2022), sensitivity and experience from the Indian and American film and video industries..

Please find below his website which would help as further source of information.

Website: http://shaanmemon.com