Introduce Yourself : Passionate, Relentless, Dreamer, Doer Storyteller | Creator...Los Angeles/New York by Arun K Vir

Criss-crossing India, England, award-winning writer, director, Arun Vir began her love affair for storytelling in New York City while producing film/TV workshops at Film/Video Arts. Her work as Committee member for the Nuyorican Poets' Café inspired Arun to find her voice. Arun’s first screenplay THE LAST WEEKEND – centering on a failed marriage earned her the prestigious “Directing Workshop for Women Award” sponsored by the American Film Institute and Gale Anne Hurd. It took “Best Short” at the Pan African Film Festival and the Emerging Artist Award at the Kodak sponsored National Black Programming Consortium Festival. In July 2020, Arun produced, directed “Doodu Boy” a solo play by Jamaican playwright, Stefhen Bryan about his coming of age in a religious commune in the ghettos of Kingston, live streamed from the Whitefire Theater in LA. Arun’s latest short story, RESET, a dark drama exploring addiction and recovery through the eyes of a mixed-race, Black/South Asian teen made its international festival premiere in London at the 2015 British Urban Film Festival sponsored by Channel 4. Recognition for its’ focus on mental health disorders, RESET showcased by Montreal Au Contreau, Canada, in India at the All-Lights Women’s Festival, and Zimbabwe, Africa. In 2016, it was Nominated “Best Diaspora” by the Africa Movie Academy Awards, Winner “Programmers Best Short” at the 2016 Pan African Film Festival. Her feature scripts include SUBURBAN TURBAN, a coming-of-age dramedy exploring multi-ethnic relationships and American identity. Suburban Turban was Finalist by The Academy Nicholl Fellowship in 2016. She was a top ten Finalist for Humanitas New Voices in 2018, Semi-Finalist, NBC Universal Writers on the Verge. Arun is in development with her TV pilots, Dad! I’m American – a series about the trials and tribulations of a top-knot Indian teen and his multi-ethnic family, living in a post 9-11 America; I Love You Mona Singh, a one-hour dramedy set in Oakland, CA about a rookie prosecuting attorney who shares a home with her rival bestie, a rookie defense attorney. Both women often go head-to-head in the legal arena while supporting one another through personal battles – love, family, relationships. Her feature script The Perfect Candidate, in development, is the true story of her life long friend, Patricia Banks, who at age 16, in 1955 after being denied employment because of her race, sued Capital Airlines for the right to work as a Flight Attendant. Arun’s earlier works include her film, UNFINISHED, a drama about a young South Asian-American woman who is forced to reconcile with her estranged African-American father to scatter her deceased mother’s ashes to India. Festival director, Giulio Scalinger, director, Arizona International Film Festival described it “an important story about the complex interplay of miscegenation, parental obligation, and diaspora, UNFINISHED is an intriguing meditation on modern-day identity and the need for intercultural interpersonal reconciliation”. As a producer, Arun’s credits include: the cop thriller feature THE BULL’S NIGHT OUT; Joan Rivers’ ROMANCING THE JOAN; Showtime’s BBGUN; (dir: Garrett Williams, 98’ Sundance winner); and Coordinating producer on the Civil Rights documentary FREEDOM RIDERS (Emmy Award Winner (dir: Stanley Nelson/Laurens Grant).