Our Team

Producer, Writer, Director

Leena Manimekalai is a leading Tamil poet and a multiple award winning intersectional queer feminist filmmaker. Her voice is distinct, as she is a 'genre no bar' artist. Her strong repertoire of films with an impressive exhibition record covering over 100 International Film Festivals includes the acclaimed ‘Maadathy-an unfairy tale’ (Feature Fiction), ‘the Sengadal-the Dead sea’ (Cinema Verite), ‘White Van Stories’ (Feature Documentary), ‘Is it too much to ask’ (Mockumentary), ‘Goddesses’ (Short Documentary) and ‘My Mirror is the Door’ (Cine Poem). She is an interventionist and her forte is participatory filmmaking. Her tryst with censorship, both constitutional and extra constitutional, as a brown queer female body, as a poet and as a politically unapologetic filmmaker is in itself a meta narrative in her journey as an Artist. She was recently chosen as a  BAFTA India Breakthrough Talent (2022-23), named  Artist in Residence  by the University Toronto(2023), profiled as one of the twenty artists who inspire change globally by  PEN America (2023). She has a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Film from York University and is currently teaching Undergraduate students at the Department of Visual Studies, University of Toronto, Mississauga. 

Screen Writer

Letícia Simões is a poet, visual artist, screenwriter and film director. Born in Brazil, she nowadays lives in Portugal, where is currently a PhD researcher in University of Porto, in Cultural and Media Studies. She wrote and directed a trilogy of feature films about marginalized artists in Brazil ("Bruta Aventura em Versos", "Everything will be colored as you wish" and "A House is an Island of Wind and Rain"; and the autobiographical documentary “Home”. As a screenwriter, she worked on series and feature films, writing for Hilton Lacerda, Marcelo Gomes, Sérgio Machado, Heloisa Passos, Marcelo Lordello, Roberta Marques, João Miller Guerra & Filipa Reis."Légua", directed by Filipa and João, premièred at Director 's Fortnight in 2023.

Executive Producer

Elango Raghupathy had a humble beginning as a first Assistant Director in Tamil Film

Industry and during his two decades of experience gained the rare privilege of working across genres in Television, OTT and Feature Films. He had huge success both as an Executive Producer and Commissioned Producer with Television Channels like Star Vijay Television, Zee, Enadu, Sun Network producing small screen sensations across the formats of reality shows, tele-serials and Tele-films. He has a unique experience as a Campaign Manager and Event Producer nationally and internationally producing multi camera outdoor shows. His forte is creative production and ran the floor for Director Leena Manimekalai's independent features and documentaries to fruition.

Consultant

Thomas Joseph, a Franciscan friar, with 12 years of experience in media, has built a diverse and influential network of individuals united by their dedication to humanitarian causes. For three years, he served as the editor-in-chief of Assisi, a renowned socio-religious multimedia magazine based in Kerala. He is the founder and director of Kaleidoscopic Teens, a voluntary organization dedicated to fostering the holistic growth of adolescent children for more than a decade. With a firm conviction in the transformative influence of education and media, Kaleidoscopic Teens nurture individuality, encouraging the youth to pursue an organic journey that seeks to mend the rift between humanity and the ecosystem, a divide born out of our unsustainable and unethical development. His commitment to creating a climate just future and seeking solutions from indigenous wisdom brought him to guide the Team-Saracura.

Associate Producer

Luis Henrique Almeida de Oliveira is a pollinator, a bridge-builder and aspiring media artist based in Braga, Portugal. Luis collaborates with LA-BORA! gov —a public innovation lab in Brazil— as sound editor for the "Ondas de Inovação" podcast. He is a Trend Local, a volunteer spotter for trends and insights that feeds the global intelligence platform of Trendwatching.com