Shalini Kantayya directed the season finale episode for the National Geographic television series “Breakthrough,” a series profiling trailblazing scientists transforming the future. Her debut feature film “Catching the Sun,” about the race for a clean energy future, premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and was named a New York Times Critics’ Pick. “Catching the Sun” was released globally on Netflix and was nominated for the Environmental Media Association Award for Best Documentary. Kantayya is a TED Fellow, a William J. Fulbright Scholar, and a finalist for the ABC Disney DGA Directing Program. She is an Associate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
“Coded Bias” will screen in the New York edition of the 2020 Human Rights Watch Film Festival. This year’s fest has gone digital due to COVID-19, and runs June 11- 20. You can find more information on the fest’s website.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
SK: “Coded Bias” explores the fallout of MIT media lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all.
It’s about how the automated systems that we rely on can replicate racism, sexism, and every other type of human bias.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
SK: I watched TED talks by Joy Buolamwini, Cathy O’Neil, and Zeynep Tufecki and realized that there was a story about the dark underbelly of big tech, and that set me on this journey.
W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?
SK: I want people to ask critical questions about so many of the technologies that we interact with every day.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
SK: There isn’t anything easy about making an independent film. It’s all a challenge. In the medium of documentary, there’s no roadmap — you have to make you’re own way.
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
SK: I was in a small village in South India, one of the 13 villages that India gave Tibet. I was the only layperson in a sea of Tibetan monks chanting, and I was aware that this is a community recreating itself in exile. In that moment, I realized that there are stories that words fall short to describe, and that’s the moment I began to see the world in a new way. I then discovered the power of visual storytelling.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
SK: Don’t wait for permission. Use the resources you have to tell your story. Now, when I shoot something on an iPhone and edit on a laptop, I say I am filming “Steven Soderbergh style.” The most important thing about a camera is who is holding it.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
SK: Gurinder Chadha’s “Bhaji on the Beach.” It was the first time I felt like I saw myself in film. She always has this contagious joy in all her work. Almost 20 after she made it, “Bhaji on the Beach” is still essential viewing for women of the diaspora.
W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how?
SK: It’s been a challenging and sad moment for humanity. I’m inspired to see the way art and music fill the gaps in human connection. I retreat to books and films in times of crisis. I also have a very powerful imagination — it can even leave the house.
