Swati is an artist and filmmaker whose projects span numerous media including documentary film, experimental video, and photography. Raised in the Santa Monica Mountains, Swati spent her childhood wandering coastal canyons mesmerized by the dappled light that crashed through the oak branches. Her mother was an amateur photographer and not surprisingly, Swati was attracted to the art of capturing light from an early age. After completing an undergraduate degree in sociology, she was drawn to documentary filmmaking as a tool to interrogate power and create connection through visual language.

Swati’s previous film projects have taken her around the world, where she has worked as a cinematographer, producer, and editor in collaboration with artists and activists on topics ranging from maternal health to community agro-forestry. Swati’s work has been broadcast on Al Jazeera and Record TV Africa, featured in film festivals and used by community groups to empower, inform, and agitate.

Informed by her interest in social inquiry and the cultural turn, Swati aims to present the contradictions that animate our lives while asking questions that unsettle and disturb the narratives we take for granted. A firm believer in the subjective and positional nature of reality, Swati is interested in exploring the human condition and its inherent absurdities through her own queer lens. Themes that Swati hopes to engage with during her time at Stanford include intimacy, relationship, affect, stillness, and duration.