Professor Dinesh Sabu

Professor Dinesh SabuMarquette University

Johnston Hall, 404D

MilwaukeeWI53201United States of America(414) 288-5953dinesh.sabu@marquette.edu

Assistant Professor, Digital Media and Performing Arts

Education

MFA in Documentary Film and Video; Stanford University, 2019
BA's in Cinema and Media Studies, Religion in the Humanities; University of Chicago, 2006

Courses Taught

DGMD 2205 Introduction to Digital Media Production
DGMD 3999 Advanced Portfolio and Production
DGMD 4845 History of Documentary Film
DGMD 4260 Documentary Production

Research Interests

I am interested in exploring different ways documentary and media can engage social issues, and vice versa. This means expanding and updating the visual language of the social issue documentary, including into new media, as well as thinking through how social issues are affected by and embodied in film form itself.

Specific research topics include the South Asian diasporic experience, decoloniality, mental illness, trauma and memory.

Professional Experience

Selected Fimography

Srkana (the stop), 2019, Director, Cinematographer, Editor
Short documentary in distribution about a truck stop on the Oklahoma-Texas border run by a Sikh family.
Los Angeles Asian American Pacific Film Festival 2020.  

Unbroken Glass, Kartemquin Films, 2016. Director, Co-Producer
Feature-length personal documentary about my journey to understand the lives and deaths of my parents.
Seattle South Asian Film Festival, Dallas VideoFest, Driftless Film Festival, Austin Asian American Film Festival; PBS Broadcast on America ReFramed May 2017.

American Arab, Kartemquin Films, 2013,  Cinematographer
Feature length documentary about Arab-American identity post-September 11th.
World Premiere at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam 2013.
PBS Broadcast on America ReFramed, 2016.

Waking in Oak Creek, Not In Our Town/The Working Group Production, 2013, Field Producer, Cinematographer
Short documentary about the community response to the 2012 massacre at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
Various PBS Affiliate Broadcast, Web-release, 2013.

Professional Affiliations

Associate, Kartemquin Films
International Documentary Association
University Film and Video Association
Society for Cinema and Media Studies

Honors and Awards

Star Filmmaker, Gene Siskel Film Center, 2018
Best Director, Unbroken Glass, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, 2017
Honorable Mention, Unbroken Glass, Austin Asian American Film Festival, 2016
Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellow 2014

Why Marquette

Documentary filmmaking is not just a technical exercise, but an artform that demands the best kind of creativity, critical thinking, ethical engagement, and commitment to social justice.