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Bio

Sanjna Selva is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, multimedia journalist, and impact producer raised between Malaysia and Singapore, now based in New York. Through patient and poetic storytelling, her work in creative nonfiction examines overlooked perspectives and narrative gaps in our understanding of global affairs. Sanjna’s directorial debut, Call Me Anytime, I’m Not Leaving the House, filmed two days into the start of the invasion of Ukraine was distributed by PBS (POV Shorts) becoming the first film about the war to be released in North America. The film also screened at festivals in the United States and internationally, where it received best short documentary and audience awards. Her other work has been featured on CBS New York, EST Media, the International Center of Photography, and supported by institutions such as The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), Firelight Media, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), Peace Is Loud, and Gotham. Presently, she is producing a feature documentary for PBS that explores the rise of Hindu right-wing nationalism in India alongside Peabody award-winning journalist Anjali Kamat, and several short documentaries in her home countries of Malaysia and Singapore, in addition to impact producing and consulting for a slate of films by Belly of the Beast, an award-winning U.S.-based media outlet reporting on news about Cuba. Across her work, Sanjna centers themes of equity, human rights, and cross-cultural, cross-border solidarity, using film as a catalyst for justice-driven, impact-focused conversations that bring communities and decision-makers together.