Ram Devineni

RAM DEVINENI is a documentary filmmaker, technologist, and founder of Rattapallax. He produced The Russian Woodpecker, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. The film was purchased by Amazon and shown in commercial theaters in New York City and Los Angeles. His most recent film, The Karma Killings, about the Nithari serial killings was out exclusively on Netflix worldwide. The Karma Killings is hailed as “true crime watershed moment” in India. He is the multimedia editor at the Virginia Quarterly Review, and the founder and editor of Rattapallax magazine, which has received numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council for the Arts. In addition, he co-founded Brazil’s first and biggest independent film school, Academia Internacional de Cinema with branches in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. He is the co-creator of the comic book, Priya’s Shakti, Priya’s Mirror, and Priya and the Lost Girls which received the Tribeca Film Institute New Media Fund from the Ford Foundation and supported by the World Bank, and showcased at 2016 New York Film Festival. For creating India’s first female superhero who is a rape survivor, he was named a “gender equality champion” by UN Women and named by Fast Company magazine as one of the most creative people in business in 2017. He was a featured speaker at hundreds of festivals such as TEDx at London Museum, Dresher Center for the Humanities, ARTBO in Bogota, Delhi Comic Convention, Myriad Festival in Australia, Bookwork Festival in Beijing, Games for Change Festival, Cooler Lumpur Literary Festival, and SXSW Interactive.

Interview with Ram Devineni, co-creator of "Priya's Mirror" on BBC 9/27/16. http://www.priyashakti.com

Responding to the attack and rape of a woman on a bus in Delhi in 2012, Ram co-created the innovative augmented reality comic book against gender-based-violence, Priya's Shakti. He shares the idea that sparked a comic book revolution. Ram Devineni is a filmmaker, publisher and founder of Rattapallax films and magazine based in New York City, Sao Paulo and New Delhi.

Videos for Good celebrates creators who unearth little-known stories, push us to reassess our perspectives, and tackle the issues that matter most. From true-crime documentary to augmented comic series, creator Ram Devineni uses video to illuminate urgent human rights issues and alter cultural perceptions. Watch on and read more on our blog: https://vimeo.com/blog/post/ram-devineni-unconventional-fight-human-rights

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