Creative Director
Current
Self Employed
New Delhi, Ncr
Samreen Farooqui and Shabani Hassanwalia founded Hit and Run Films in 2005, an independent video production unit, which engages with changing socio-political-personal realities through documentaries, video art and intervention films. Their first feature documentary, Out of Thin Air, on Ladakhi local cinema, was an official selection at International Film festival of Rotterdam and was the opening film at Film South Asia, 2009, besides playing at numerous other festivals. Their second feature documentary, Online and Available, released in 2012, told a story of an India-in-transition through its online identity formation. Their most recent film Gali, delves into a world of hip-hop in Delhi, a community that role-plays participation, as well as, dissent, against a mainstream that continues to exclude them.The documentary catches them in their search for space, as their choice of expression unites them with those fighting invisibility, throughout the world.Their Film Being Bhaijaan, 2014 is a story about masculinity in India, through Salman Khan’s fans. It played at New York Indian Festival, 2015 and will be broadcast on Channel 4, UK.They worked as associate directors and editors of Star by Dibakar Banerjee, as part of the Bombay Talkies omnibus in 2013, to celebrate 100 years of Indian cinema.They have been supported by the Films Division India, Channel 4, UK, DFGDocs, UK, Public Service Broadcasting Trust, India Foundation for the Arts, Nirantar, Centre for Gender and Education, Khabar Lahariya, Dibakar Banerjee Productions and Religious Brands, among others. Alongside, they have been doing ethnographic studies using the documentary medium with Religious Brands in New Delhi, for close to five years. Along with independent research, where we do immersions with our protagonists, our work results in short films.
