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Documentary Film and Photography

Vidya Premraj

Awards

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Vidya is an emerging documentary filmmaker and photographer based in London. Through holistic and ethical practice, Vidya encapsulates people, culture, and conservation through an experimental digital lens, telling stories and encouraging community engagement.

 For Vidya, the beauty of documentaries lies in the constant state of influence, observation, learning, and participation, with a desire for others to experience and grow with the world.

Vidya is an emerging documentary filmmaker and photographer based in London. Through holistic and...

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Stories are a beautiful thing to share.

Determined to bring the community closer through narrative, my practice delves into the creation of storytelling, forming warm connections with people, places, culture and conservation. I've explored the power of the voice and narrative as tools for intimacy and highlighted storytelling's transformative capacity for fostering connections and its power to drive social change. My practice has centred around situating myself within my site of research and forming genuine relationships with the things around me. Documenting through a digital lens, my focus started within my local surroundings and has spread across the globe to India, my motherland. A recurring location seen within my practice, I'm constantly drawn to my roots, exploring Indian culture, identity and conversation.

My work has considered exhibition design heavily, encouraging audience members to engage, play with and contemplate my work. This was prompted by my desire to make moving image and photography more immersive and interactive, especially within a gallery space. I want these stories to come to life and for you to connect with them.

Final work

Dear Daivam (God)

My most recent film, shot in March 2024, Dear Daivam (meaning God) is a short documentary highlighting the power of community within Hindu religious sites in India. From the southernmost tip of India to the North, in Rishikesh, I was compelled to question what makes people hold onto faith.

Growing up in the UK and witnessing rapid secularisation, I embarked on a route of inquiry to my motherland. With a personal yet observatory approach, I set out to understand how religion charges a person wholly differently from someone who is atheistic or agnostic. This film shares four different areas of religious power: Kerala, where the traditional dance form Kathakali was birthed; Kanyakumari, a coastal town that exudes spiritual energy from sunrise to sunset; Haridwar, where Har Ki Pauri, a ghat located on the banks of the sacred river Ganges sees pilgrims and religious tourists from all over the world congregate for ritualistic bathing and evening prayer ceremonies; and lastly, Rishikesh, one of many cities that celebrate Holi, a vibrant Hindu festival marking the arrival of spring.

Warning: Contains flashing images
  • This series of photographs are taken from around north and south India, showing different individuals situated in a seminal place of worship.
  • This series of photographs were taken around North and South India, documenting individuals located at a site of religious importance.
  • This photographic series shows people within their places of worship in North and South India

Whistles of Ladakh

Whistles of Ladakh is an experimental short that celebrates the lives of Ladakhi locals and documents a five-day trek in rural Ladakh. It embraces warm connections with the people I met and the grounds I walked upon. Storytelling through poetry parallels the relationships I built, drawing a link between voice, image-making, and storytelling.  

This film is a deeply personal project. It highlights my relationship with my birth country, India, and evokes a sense of nostalgia for the spectator. Using Bertolt Brecht's alienation effect, I capture the fragmented connection I feel to my motherland, weaving together complex feelings of attachment and separation.

Warning: Contains flashing images

Research and process

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Documentary Film and Photography

Stories are a beautiful thing to share. Determined to bring the community closer through narrative, my practice delves into the creation of storytelling, forming warm connections with people, places, culture and conservation. I've explored the power of the voice and nar...

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