Meet Nihaarika Negi: Film & Theatre Maker I Co-founder Autotelic Pictures

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nihaarika Negi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nihaarika, what are you inspired by?
I am inspired by a desire to make space for the lost mythologies of our inner lives. By a need to excavate at the site of our bodies and reclaim the ancestry of our cultures.

I am inspired by the possibility of complete and utter failure.
By the practice of sitting with the things that make us uncomfortable.

But mostly, as a foreigner and a woman of color, I am inspired by a desire to take the systemic injustices that mark our skins like papercuts and use them to craft contemporary folktales that capture our imaginative potential for healing and change.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?

I am an interdisciplinary artist from India, working internationally – as a writer/director, performer, producer across the mediums of film, theatre, live art and VR. I tell stories at the intersection of performance, magical realism and contemporary folktale – that make space for diverse female South-Asian voices in an international context that is sustainable.
My work has been supported by Sundance Institute + Women In Film, Berlinale Talents 2021, Venice Film Festival Development Labs, Rotterdam’s Cinemart, UK Arts Council, French Ministry of Culture – CNC, Roundhouse Theatre, Camden People’s Theatre, Mumbai Film Festival, Serendipity Arts Festival and NFDC Film Labs.

I’ve recently co-founded an LA-based production company called Autotelic Pictures, with three other partners – Nancy Degnan, Nick Frangione and Tobias Reeuwijk. Autotelic is an artist-first company. We are committed to pushing culture forward by empowering the voices of interdisciplinary artists from marginalized perspectives – to create work that is brave, inventive and embraces our collective capacity for change.
We are currently building a project slate and are in the financing & packaging stages for FERAL, a Sundance +Women In Film supported feature, that I am the Writer/Director on.
We are excited to be embarking on this journey and always looking for great partnerships and collaborations.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Culver City is one of my favourite neighbourhoods for its walkability and its melange of historic and contemporary establishments. If a friend was visiting, I’d take them to:

-The Grand Casino & Bakery Cafe – a quaint 34-year old Argentian bakery that holds tango classes on some evenings.
-The Actor’s Gang Theatre – for their incredible work with theatre and community engagement.
-The Culver Hotel – for its vintage charm.
-The Museum of Jurrasic Technology – for its eccentric and unique curation.
-The Conservatory of Coffee, Tea & Coca – for their freshly-ground beans.
-Mayura Indian Restaurant – for their incomparable buffet, and the warmth and personal touch of the owners. The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to dedicate this shoutout to my teacher, Phillip Zarrilli, who rode out on his final breath around this time last year and left behind a beautiful global constellation of life-long practitioners. Phillip was the founder of Psychophysical Acting – a methodology that uses of meditative martial arts practices like Yoga, Tachi and Kalari to train performers.
He was a teacher who believed in and practised the notions of radical compassion and care. He gave us the tools to understand how by simply shifting our relationship with our breath – we could make space for something tender and deeply human to emerge. How a simple but rigorous practice of mindfulness, could become a way of life and the source of our creative power. In working with Phillip, I was able to understand how what we create cannot be divested from the way we create it.
How the manner in which we choose to live our lives always seeps into the work that we seek to make.
And that we always have a choice.
We can always choose kindness over cruelty. Radical acceptance over hate.
I am grateful for each day that I get to have the privilege of making that choice.

Website: www.niharikanegi.com

Instagram: @nihaarikan

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nihaarika-negi-0873487

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nihaarika.negi.7

Other: https://www.berlinale-talents.de/bt/talent/nihaarikanegi/profile

Image Credits
Asawari Jagushte Rowena Gorden Raaj Chakaravarti Bombay Film Factory