Gunjan Menon is an independent wildlife filmmaker and writer from India. She specializes in conservation and human interest stories and has won multiple accolades with 30+ awards and nominations across 15 countries so far. Her work has been seen on Animal Planet, Discovery, BBC Earth, along with other local Indian platforms. In her critically acclaimed and student BAFTA-nominated film, ‘The Firefox Guardian’, she captured the unique bond shared between a community in Nepal and wild red pandas. The film now travels to various film festivals, schools and colleges across the world and has successfully started a dialogue on ecofeminism and continues to raise funds for red panda conservation.
‘Nature Environment Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF) Congress’ in South Africa invited her to talk about the ‘Role of Women in Wildlife Filmmaking’ and to conduct workshops on ‘Creating Impact With Your Phone’ and ‘Wildlife Cinematography’. She was a virtual cinematography mentor at the NEWF Wild Women Media Lab, an initiative to guide ten women in conservation science and media from seven countries in Africa through the process of producing a micro-film. She also spends her time teaching children and youth about endangered species of India. She strives to shift the limelight to lesser-known species and habitats and practices a cross-genre approach to bring conservation stories to the masses.
Gunjan holds an MA in Wildlife Filmmaking from the University of West of England, Bristol and was recently awarded the Jackson Wild Media Award as the Rising Star 2020 for her contributions in the field of nature, conservation and science media. . She is the Founder of ‘Beyond Premieres’, an organization that supports filmmakers to create tangible impact through their art.