Kalpana Subramanian

Kalpana Subramanian (Ph.D. University at Buffalo, State University of New York) is an artist, filmmaker, and scholar interested in transcultural and interdisciplinary approaches to film and media. Over the course of her career she has produced a diverse body of work spanning film and video art, photography, interactive media and music. Her recent work investigates experimental cinema through perspectives of embodiment from the Global South. Her practice-based doctoral research at the Department of Media Study, University at Buffalo, proposes an alternative framework of cinematic inquiry and praxis that she defines as a ‘‘Cinema of Breath.’

Her work has been presented in over 23 countries and has received various awards and honors. Venues include the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Images Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Flaherty NYC Seminar, UNESCO (France), Wildscreen UK, and National Gallery of Modern Art (Mumbai, India) among others. Subramanian has curated film programs that have been presented at Harvard FAS CAMLab, Alternative Cinema series at Colgate University, Simon Fraser University (Canada) and Bristol Experimental Expanded Film (UK) among others.

Subramanian’s films have received awards from the Documentary Festival of History and Archeology (Italy), Montana CINE International Film Festival (USA) and the Center for Media Studies Vatavaran Film Festival (India).

As a core member of the Sacred World Research Laboratory, she produced video art for projects that received team awards including an Ars Electronica award for Interactive Art, (Linz, Austria), and ID Magazine Gold Prize and an ID Magazine Distinction (NY, USA) among others. She is also a recipient of The Audi International Design Award (1996) for a multidisciplinary team project.

Subramanian was recipient of a New York Council on the Arts Grant (2024), Fulbright Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship (2015-16), UK Environmental Film Fellowship (2006), and a Humanities Institute Fellowship (University at Buffalo, 2022-23). Her articles have been published in Papers on Language and Literature, Miguel Hernández Communication Journal and C-Magazine.

Subramanian has taught film and media in both India and the US. She served as an Assistant Teaching Professor at the Department of Media Study at the University at Buffalo (SUNY)  prior to joining the University of Colorado Boulder. 

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