Staff Profile - School of Arts and Cultures

Dr Geetha Jayaraman known as Geetha J is a writer, filmmaker and producer.

A keen interest in women’s issues led her to become one of the founding members of the first autonomous woman’s organizations in Kerala, India. She embarked on her media career as a journalist, later moving in to television as a presenter/producer and writing as a film critic. She received wide critical acclaim for her first television documentary, The (A)Miss World, on the clash of thoughts and controversies surrounding the Miss World competition in India in 1996.

In 2001, Geetha came to England and while lecturing at the University of Sussex set up the award-winning Brighton International Film Society of which Ken Loach was the Patron. Acquiring her own video camera resulted in her returning to India to make her first film Woman with a Video Camera (2005, 52 mins) from Kerala that had hardly any woman filmmaker then.

Geetha founded AkamPuram, an independent production company that has a distinctive slate of documentaries, experimental shorts and hybrid works to its credit. She received the Göteborg International Film Festival’s Film Development Fund for her first feature script A Certain Slant of Light. This was selected for NFDC’s Directors’ Lab 2014. Her second script End Game was at the Co-Production Market at Film Bazaar 2014. RUN KALYANI (2019) is her debut feature fiction film that has travelled to many international film festivals and won nine awards.

Geetha collaborated with multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker Ian McDonald right from his first film Inside the Kalari (2007). Acclaimed internationally for their Grierson-nominated feature documentary Algorithms (2012) about young blind chess players from India, their films have screened at film festivals, galleries, academic conferences, campaign-meetings and in cinemas around the world. They have worked across a range of forms and subjects - from a gay football team (Brighton Bandits) to a veteran Ham Radio Operator (OM:OldMan) from a gallery work FREEDOM, to a split screen doc Who is Europe? FREEDOM is a four-screen film installation on the radical legacy of Martin Luther King exhibited in Newcastle, Brighton and London. Geetha and Ian make films that confront the political and the personal, surprising viewers with unusual visual richness, unique take on a subject and humanity of treatment.

Geetha did her BA and MA in English language and literature. She was awarded a doctorate for her thesis Woman in Indian Narratives that includes a critical interrogation of the dominant pan-Indian Hindi cinema. Geetha is also trained in South Indian classical music and dance and was involved in progressive street plays.

Geetha joined Newcastle University in Sept 2015.

Select Filmography:

As Director:

2019: Run Kalyani | 100 min | India | Feature Fiction REF output

2014: Seescapes | 10min | India | Hybrid REF output

2007: Akam/Inside | 12min | India | Cine-poem

2006: A Short Film About Nostalgia | 17min | India | Docu-fiction

2005: Woman with a Video Camera | 52min | India | Creative Doc

As Producer:

With Ian McDonald As Director:

2021: The First Year | 90 min | UK | Documentary

2021: A Snail’s Pace | 10 min | India | Documentary

2019: Who Is Europe? A film in six acts | 60 min | UK | Documentary REF output

2017: FREEDOM | 22 min & 10 min | UK | 4 screen gallery installation REF output

2016: OM:OldMan | 30min | India-UK | Documentary REF output

2012: Algorithms | 100 min | India | Documentary REF output

2011: Justin | 30 min | UK | Documentary REF output

2010: Melancholic Constellations: The Art of William Kentridge | 55 min | UK | Documentary REF output

2010: Willem Boshoff: Reflections of a South African Artist | 23 min | UK | Documentary REF output

2008: Out of Our Hands | 9 min | India | Documentary

2008: Shame | 5 min | UK | Documentary

2007: Brighton Bandits | 40 min | UK | Documentary REF output

2007: Inside the Kalari | 20 min | India | Documentary

*Research Excellence Framework

On Algorithms:

Interview with Geetha J and Ian McDonald

Interview with Geetha J

Research

Research Interests:

Film Practice – feature film (fiction & doc), documentary installations, experimental shorts

Film Art - Indian Cinema, Music and Dance

Film Theory - Aesthetics, Politics, Gender

PhD supervision – supervising three full time and one part time research scholar

Industry experience:

Geetha has worked in the Print and Visual Media in India for over a decade. She has been working as an independent director and producer from 2003 onwards in both India and England. She founded AkamPuram, India and interventions, UK.

Teaching

Teaching Responsibilities:

Introduction to World Cinema: Ideas, Art, Cultures (Module leader, sole delivered)

Filmmaking: Ideas to Screen (Module leader, co-delivered)

Film Practice dissertations (Module leader, supervisor)

Publications

Jayaraman G. Run Kalyani. India: AkamPuram, 2019. .mp4.
Jayaraman G. Longing | Fiction-Script. 2018. Submitted.
McDonald I, Jayaraman G. FREEDOM. Newcastle upon Tyne: The Great North Museum, 2017. Online streaming.
Jayaraman G, McDonald I. OM:OldMan. India and UK: AkamPuram, 2016.
J Geetha. A Certain Slant of Light | 120 min | India | Fiction | Writer-Director. Directors Lab, NFDC, India: AkamPuram, 2014. In Preparation.
J Geetha. End Game | 100 min | India | Fiction | Writer-Director. Film Bazaar, Goa, India: interventions & AkamPuram, 2014. In Preparation.
J Geetha. Seescapes | 10min | India | Hybrid Documentary | Director. India: AkamPuram, 2014.
J Geetha. Algorithms dir Ian McDonald | 100 min | India | Documentary | Producer. India: AkamPuram, 2012.
J Geetha. Justin dir Ian McDonald | 30 min | UK | Documentary | Producer. UK: interventions, 2011.
J Geetha. Out of Our Hands dir Ian McDonald | 9 min | India | Documentary | Producer. India: AkamPuram, 2008.
J Geetha. Shame dir Ian McDonald | 5 min | UK | Documentary | Producer. UK: interventions, 2008.
J Geetha. Akam/Inside | 12 min | India | Cine-poem | Director. India: AkamPuram, 2007.
J Geetha. Brighton Bandits dir Ian McDonald | 40 min | UK | Documentary | Producer. UK: interventions, 2007.
J Geetha. Inside the Kalari dir Ian McDonald | 20 min | India | Documentary | Producer. India: AkamPuram, 2007.
J Geetha. A Short Film About Nostalgia | 17 min | India | Docu-fiction | Director. India: AkamPuram, 2006.
J Geetha. Woman with a Video Camera | 52 min | India | Creative Doc | Director. India: AkamPuram, 2005.
J Geetha. “Bollywood Ending”. Sight & Sound 2003.
J Geetha. “The Relevance of Shantaram - a note on the UK Shantaram Film Season". Cinema in India 2002.
J Geetha. “The Marginalisation of Romance”. Deep Focus 1998, Vol. III, No. 3 & 4.
J Geetha. “The Indian Hero of the Nineties”. In: International Conference on Europe and South Asia: 500 years. 1998.
J Geetha. “Shooting Stars Speak”. Deep Focus 1997, Vol. VII, No. 1.
J Geetha. Women’s Day | 25 Min | Doc | Director-Prodcuer. India: Asianet TV, 1997.
J Geetha. “Demythifying Paroma”. Deep Focus 1996, Vol. VI.
J Geetha. “Marta Meszaros": A note on her films and interview with her during the IFFI 96. Deep Focus 1996, Vol. VI. No. 2 & 3.
J Geetha. The (A)Miss World | 23 min x3 | Director-Producer. India: Asianet TV, 1996.
J Geetha. “The Lure of the Exotic: Notes on Khuda Gawah and Henna”. Deep Focus 1993, Vol. V.
J Geetha. “Disciplining the Feminine”. Deep Focus 1992, Vol. IV, No.1.
J Geetha. “Feminism and Cinema”. Deep Focus 1992, Vol. IV, No. 1.
J Geetha. “Cinema and Women’s Liberation”. In: K. Satchidanandan, ed. Stree Padanangal (Women Studies). India: Bodhi Books, 1990.
J Geetha. “The Mutating Mother: From Mother India to Ram Lakhan”. Deep Focus 1990, Vol. III, No.3.

Dr Geetha Jayaraman

Lecturer in Film Practice