Priya Mishra is a director + writer who’s burning white hollywood to the ground.

Based in New York City, she wrote, directed, and co-produced her debut short film, Bath Bomb (2021), in Fall 2019. Bath Bomb and Only Business (2022) are currently playing at festivals.

 

Premiering at the Tokyo International Short Film Festival (2021), where was a finalist, Bath Bomb was awarded Best Short at the LGBTQ+ Los Angeles Film Festival (2022), Marudham Film Fest (2022), and Japan International Film Festival (2022). Bath Bomb has played at eleven other amazing film festivals across six different countries, where it has been a finalist at seven of them.

A second generation Indian immigrant who has lived in New York her whole life, and a girl who lost her mom during her junior year of college, Priya’s work centers love, grief, acceptance, social-critique, and embracing your anger. With over 10 years experience in visual arts and writing, Priya has found film to be an exciting medium through which to exercise her prior talents. Priya hopes that her work will make audiences feel more connected with other human beings, more angry at the state of the world, and more willing to make it better by embracing vulnerability and kindness.

 

Bath Bomb dir. Priya Mishra

Writer & Director // Fall 2019 - Present

Wrote the screenplay for the film, which is about a gay woman’s grief and struggles on her mother’s death anniversary. Directed the cast and crew of the film, and oversaw the artistic and technical elements of the film to fulfill my vision. To do so, also location scouted, shot listed, casted actors, and sourced all props and costumes used in the film. Created the budget and fully crowdsourced all funding needed for the film. 

 

Only Business dir. Priya Mishra

Director & Social Media Manager // Fall 2020 – Present

Creating all content for social media using Adobe Suite and Canva to promote the short film and reach funding goals.  Building up the aesthetic and atmospheric vision for the film through online content, overseeing costumes and props, and conferring with the actors, director of photography, and art director.

 

Let’s Do Drugs Dir. Brenna Webb & Kate Hefner

Assistant Director & Assistant Camera // Spring 2019

Managed the crew to keep production on schedule by creating daily call-sheets, acting as a liaison between the crew and the directors, tracking time use, and maintaining order on set. Communicated with the cast and crew to ensure that needs were met and health & safety standards were maintained. Shot listed with the directors and DP to ensure the narrative would be conveyed in the cheapest and most effective way. Assisted lead cinematographer with focusing shots, lens changes, and managing equipment.

When I think of my favorite films, I am filled with a deep sense of warmth and exhilaration. They are films that force the audience to react aloud, and are still thought of hours after they are finished. They are films that feel intimately centered around relationships between a small group of people, but are enmeshed within the context of larger social and environmental issues.  As someone with a background in Economics and Sustainable Development, who received departmental honors for her thesis on changing portrayals of gender roles in Bollywood film, I know the deeply rooted need humans have for storytelling, and in this day and age, how integral films are in allowing us to imagine ourselves in the most expansive of ways. 

We humans are so full of longing and desire. Fred Rogers said it best: “The greatest thing we can do is to help somebody know that they are loved and capable of loving.” This is the ethos that drives the films I wish to release into the world. Films that make people feel as if they are worthy of their emotions and the relationships they cultivate. Intrinsically, not because of some institutional sanction. Films that draw out the anger in people, make it bubble to the surface, make them argue about how they feel: “God, how fucked up is our world? How can we make it better?” Or: “Wow! I didn’t even know that was possible. Maybe it can be possible for me.”