I enjoy working in the space where creativity and structure meet.
What I edit
I edit films, documentaries and videos. My work focuses on stories that make inner lives and behind-the-scenes experiences visible.
Some of the work I’ve enjoyed the most include a brief history of Indian football for Vice, a Filipino feature film about a young billiards player struggling to climb out of the underground world of betting and gambling on games to compete in the national championships, a documentary about being polyamorous in India, and my own short film about a comedian struggling to see the funny side of thing when her best friend gets a promotion while her own career stagnates.
Short stories, nonfiction and books
My expertise in story development across various forms, paired with my lifelong engagement with literature, has led me to expand into literary editing.
Most recently, I edited a collection of short stories by Indian authors for the Deodar Prize.
I publish a Substack with reviews and essays on nonfiction books about how we live, how our minds and bodies work, and how the world around us shapes who we become.
I have written for publications including The Book Review India, the Stanford Social Innovation Review and The Tribune.
Education
I hold a Masters in Film Production from New York University Tisch School of the Arts Asia, which trained me to tell stories in many forms, to work in teams and diverse places on the globe, and connected me with a global community of filmmakers and artists.
My professors shaped the way I think about storytelling and that foundation now informs my own teaching as a guest lecturer in film editing at Whistling Woods International.
I also teach masterclasses on story development for production companies and writing labs.
Past Roles
In previous lives, I’ve worked as a producer and development consultant.
I produced a short film called Disco Obu about a journalist capturing a day in the life of a former child actor turned auto rickshaw driver, which premeired at Clarmont-Ferrand and is available on Amazon in select countries and Mubi. I also produced a food and chat series called Menu Please on the Netflix India Youtube channel.
I served on Guneet Monga’s development team at Sikhya Entertainment and previously developed projects and was an editor at the actor/ comedian Vir Das’ company. My time there inspired my short film, Tara Versus, set in the world of Indian comedy, which received a Hollywood Foreign Press Association grant, premiered at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and screened at the New York Indian Film Festival and more across the US and Europe during its festival run. It also won the award for Best Editing at the NYU First Run Film Festival.
My previous short film, Fading Fields, set in Vietnam, screened at the Asian Film Festival of Dallas and the Festival de Cine de Maipú among others.
Ayesha Anna Ninan 