Profile

Dr. Rajesh James is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Sacred Heart College, Thevara since 2011. He is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker.  He received Ph.D. in Film Studies. His research articles have appeared/been accepted in SCI/Scopus Indexed journals such as  ARIEL: A Review of International Literature (John Hopkins University, USA),  Studies in Documentary Film (Routledge), Wacana Seni: Journal of Arts Discourse, and  Economic and Political Weekly. He is the co-author/editor of books such as  India Retold: Dialogues with Independent Documentary Filmmakers in India (Bloomsbury,  New York), Illuminations:  Vignettes from Inspirational Literatures (Macmillan Publishers), and  In Search of the Other: Regional Literatures in Translation (Mainspring Publishers).

He was awarded the prestigious Riyad Wadia Award for Best Emerging Filmmaker, India in 2017 and Kerala State Award for Best Documentary in 2020. His documentary Naked Wheels won K.F.Patil Unity in Diversity Award for Best Documentary Short at Kashish International Queer Film Festival Mumbai in 2017. He was also awarded P.K. Rossy Puraskaram for Best Documentary 2016 by Kerala Sthree Padana Kendram, Government of Kerala at the International Feminist Film Festival of Kerala 2016. His films are nominated for best documentary awards at UK Asian Film Festival 2021 (London), Tasveer: South Asian International Film Festival, Seattle USA, and New York Indian Film Festival in 2018. He has directed documentary films like  In Thunder, Lightning and Rain (2018) Naked Wheels (2017), and Zebra Lines (2014).  He is widely travelled including USA, UK, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Greece, and Malaysia. He is also a visiting faculty at various universities in India such as the Department of Visual Communication, Pondicherry Central University.