KPU welcomes new KDocsFF emerging filmmaker in residence

Shanthini Balasubramanian never thought she would win the KDocsFF Emerging Filmmaker Residency Prize.

But receiving the honour at this year’s Sundar Prize Film Festival came as a “pleasant surprise” to the Surrey-based writer and director who started as a volunteer at the inaugural festival in 2024.

Balasubramanian was also nominated for the Best Youth Film Award at Sundar Prize and was happy to share her film Velvet Secrets at the festival, which was put on by the charity Sher Vancouver in Surrey. 

Velvet Secrets is the story of a traditional Tamil mother, Asha, who discovers a revealing red velvet dress in her daughter, Deepthi’s, room. Initially worried by the scandalous outfit in Deepthi’s closet, over time, Asha becomes intrigued by the dress and tries it on. The film follows the journey and experience the velvet dress creates for Asha, Balasubramanian says. 

“It makes her stand up for herself and her daughter.” 

Whether it’s the little motifs and symbolisms or props used in the making of the film, Balasubramanian’s life growing up as a South Asian girl has inspired and influenced aspects of the film. 

“I think we all go through that experience of not really feeling home, because it’s so difficult when you are growing up in an environment, and the minute you step outside the door, you’re feeling like you’re in another world,” she says. 

Balancing these world’s, Balasubramanian says, can be challenging and create misunderstandings and disconnect between younger and older generations. For parents, these struggles often mean moving to a new country to start a new life. While for children, it can mean the struggle of not feeling Canadian enough. 

“At home, you love your food, you love what it is, what it does for you.”

While many films have focused on the younger generation’s perspective when it comes to these struggles, Balasubramanian wanted to “flip the narrative” and portray Asha’s story and the challenges she faces as a mother. 

The KDocsFF Emerging Filmmaker Residency Prize is a partnership between Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s social justice documentary film festival KDocsFF and Sher Vancouver. KPU English instructor Greg Chan founded the residency program and directs it in partnership with the Sundar Prize Film Festival.

During her four-month residency at KPU, which began May 1, Balasubramanian will be working on collaborations, engaging with students who want to learn about getting involved in filmmaking, and hosting a screening of Velvet Secrets at the Surrey campus. 

“I’m going to be learning a lot and I’m looking forward to that,” she says. “KPU has been very kind to me, and they’ve provided me with mentorships with audio, acting, screenwriting.”

Growing up doing theatre, Balasubramanian says she will always try to go back to theatre in some way. Originally from Edmonton, she got her start in the film industry by trying out for a school play where she was cast as the lead role. 

“That validation — that somebody is believing in me and somebody thinks I can do it — really pushed me. And then that’s when I stepped into the world of theatre.”

She has a background in acting and technical theatre, including stage managing, lights, sound props, hair and makeup, and designing costumes. She was also a theatre critic at the Alberta Youth Theatre Collective and used to write play reviews which then got published in the Edmonton Journal. 

However, she knew she wanted to get into film later in life. 

“I grew up watching a lot of beautiful Tamil, Malayalam, and Hindi movies, so just having that has always been a big factor,” Balasubramanian says.

After finishing at InFocus Film School in Vancouver, she started working on her first film Velvet Secrets and began pitching it to film competitions. After the Mighty Asian Moviemaking Marathon, Vancouver Asian Film Festival’s short filmmaking competition, picked up Balasubramanian’s pitch, she produced the drama within 10 days. 

This didn’t come without slight hurdles for Balasubramanian, who was making the film entirely in Tamil and had to find actors who were comfortable speaking the language on camera. 

“But miracles do happen.” 

Balasubramanian wanted to make the film entirely in Tamil to do justice to the diverse experiences of the Tamil community and represent different groups of Indian people. 

“I’d never seen anything on screen that showcased Tamil families living in Canada and having that authentic life I had. So I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to explore that,” she says. 

However, she had been working on the film well before that. She pitched Velvet Secrets first at the annual Crazy8s Film Festival in Vancouver, where it made it among the top 12 films at the competition. 

“I didn’t have a story, I didn’t have any things, and I just turned 19, and you needed to be 19 to apply for Crazy8s. So I took it as a sign.”

Balasubramanian says the purpose of her film was to create curiosity among the audience. 

“We didn’t want to spoon feed anything because I think it’s really easy to do that and it’s really easy to whitewash our films to present it to a larger audience, but it’s really important to keep our work authentic and be true to ourselves,” she says. 

Currently in school for visual effects at the Think Tank Training Centre in North Vancouver, Balasubramanian is on track to become a VFX compositor shortly after the end of her residency at KPU. She is also working on a project with a Bharatnatyam dance group for her VFX demo reel about the classical Indian dance plus cyber punk. 

Balasubramanian says she is open to speaking with KPU students about filmmaking or anything they are working on.

Editor’s note: The online version of this story previously mentioned Balasubramanian won the Best Youth Film Award. In fact, she was nominated for the award.