Newborns is a short film that attempts to provide a lens to the survivors of acid violence, to look forward and gaze back. The film takes us through the ennui of their domestic and public spaces in a nameless dystopian city, its factories, houses and motels, and its promises, never honoured. Through the film, Laxmi Agarwal and her friends, human rights activists and a survivors of acid violence, gaze back at us, as we contemplate together the meaning of memory and loss. What does beauty mean to survivors of acid violence? What does beauty mean to people in their environment? How do the two world-views interact? What do concepts of 'fear', 'power', 'innocence' and 'beauty' mean to us?

During the making of the film, director Megha Ramaswamy started a nationwide initiative called the ‘Spot of Shame’ campaign that aims to generate public awareness around the issue of acid-attack violence and to terminate the recurrence of such attacks. In association with Stop Acid Attacks, a Delhi-based NGO, ‘Spot of Shame’ entails marking ‘spots’ in the city where women have been attacked with acid in broad daylight. For the campaign, typography was designed and stencilled into walls, street plays were performed, placards and signs were displayed. This was primarily to serve as a constant reminder of public apathy and government negligence. Since the inception of the campaign, Spot of Shame events have been carried out in more than a dozen cities across India (and counting).

Newborns has made rounds of many international film festivals, winning awards and top honours for its powerful storytelling and innovative technique. The film also won the German Star Award for Best Documentary at the Indisches Filmfestival Stuttgart, JIFF’15 Worldwood International Panorama and Moonfaze Feminist Film Festival in LA. In addition to those, Newborns was awarded the Best Short Documentary Award at the Mumbai Women's International Film Festival and the Delhi Shorts International Film Festival (Jury Prize). At the London Asian Film Festival, the film won both the Audience and the Jury Award for Best Short Film. The film was also given the cARTel Select Special Mention for Innovation Award in Los Angeles.

In 2015, Ramaswamy’s MissFit Films created Bunny, a live-action short film that explores the fantasies and fears that accompany childhood. Bunny is an elegiac look at how fantastical childhood is, and evocative of the heartbreak with which we leave it behind. The film had its world premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Bunny has been acquired by sales agents New Europe Film Sales and is distributed via Canal Plus and EU Shorts in Europe. According to the Indian Express, “The 15-minute silent short unfolds through visuals and required Ramaswamy to develop a visual code that would serve as a way to communicate the film’s emotions to the audience.”^[8]

In 2016, Ramaswamy premiered her latest documentary short, The Last Music Store at the South Asian International Film Festival (SAIFF), where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. The 38-minute film documents the closure of Rhythm House, Mumbai’s oldest large format music and video store, that went out of business due to rise of piracy and highlights the lament of the store’s eccentric, dedicated, long-standing employees of the store and how they cope with this loss. Ramaswamy's connection with Rhythm House first started when she first discovered the store back in 2001. Ramaswamy met Aliya Curmally, producer of The Last Music Store and daughter of Rhythm House owner Amir Curmally, at a writing programme.^[9] The film does not delve into Rhythm House’s commercial history but instead asserts its role in enhancing Mumbai’s musical culture over the decades.^[10] In March 2016, a short sneak peek of the film was released on Facebook and instantly went viral. It was covered by various news sites such as BuzzFeed, ScoopWhoop, Scroll.in and many more.^[11]

• 2011 - Shaitan – Writer
• 2012 - Ship of Theseus – Actress (Journalist)
• 2014 - Newborns (Documentory short)^[2] – Writer and director
• 2015 - Bunny (Short)^[3] – Writer and director
• 2016 - The Last Music Store - Writer and Director

NEWBORNS:

Official Selection

• Toronto International Film Festival '14 Shorts Cuts Programme (World Premiere)
• Clermont Ferrand International Film Festival,
• International Human Rights Film Festival Of Paris
• London Asia Film Festival
• IndiEarth XCange2014, Chennai
• 4th UN Pasadena Film Festival, LA
• Vancouver International Film Festival
• Kurzfilmfestival München, Germany
• Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Switzerland
• FlickerFest, Australia
• Filmmor, Turkey
• Reno Tahoe International Film Festival, Germany
• Prague Short Film Festival
• Human Rights Arts and Film Festival, Australia
• Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, Australia
• Jaipur International Film Festival, India
• Cinequest Film Festival San Jose, USA
• Marfa Film Festival, Texas, USA
• CA Byron Bay International Film, Australia
• Festival Down East Flick Festival
• DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Canada
• Tenerife Shorts, Spain
• Idlywild International Festival of Cinema, USA
• Paris Lesbian & Feminist Film Festival, France

Awards

• Mumbai Women's International Film Festival - Best Short Documentary
• The cARTel Select Special Mention for Innovation Award
• Indian Film Festival of Stuttgart - Best Documentary Film
• London Asian Film Festival- Audience & Jury award for Best Short Film
• JIFF’15 Worldwood International Panorama - Best Documentary Film
• Delhi Shorts International Film Festival- Jury Prize for Best Short Documentary
• Moonfaze Feminist Film Festival, LA – Best Documentary Film

BUNNY:

• TIFF 15 (world premiere)
• Cork film festival, Ireland
• Tous Ecrans, Geneva
• Nordic international film festival
• Idyllwild international film festival, USA
• SouthSideFilmInstitute, USA
• Indian film festival Los Angeles, USA