Kartiki Gonsalves (Born November 02, 1986 in Pune, India) is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, the first film director to win an Academy Award in India. The Elephant Whisperers was also an IDA Award 2023 Nominee, a DOC NYC 2022 Nominee Shorts Competition, and Gold List 2022 Nominee Honorable Mention.
A fellow at International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP), one of the first women chosen as a Sony Alpha Artisan of Imagery in India and a Swarovski Nature Explorer and Peak Design. She shuttles between the Nilgiri mountains in the Western Ghats of Southern India and the Pacific North West of North America. Gonsalves is the founder of Earth Spectrum, an organization founded in 2018 which uses the power of storytelling to raise awareness about biodiversity and cultural life.
In late 2018, she was a part of the filming crew (one of the camerawomen) for the episode “The Asiatic Black bear” of the TV series On The Brink for Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. This show focuses on many endangered species across India together with the stories of researchers and scientists involved in protecting them. Gonsalves’s work has been published in The Hindu, Economic Times, Deccan Herald, Scroll.in, Jet Airways- Jet Wings, Smart Photography, and Classic Imaging for which she is a freelance photographer. Her most recent work captured women’s lives in a land torn between two hostile neighbors in the northernmost tip of India on “The Line of Control” between India and Pakistan. Her photographic work focuses on capturing the wonders of nature and diversity of cultural groups across the world. In 2017 she was a cameraman part for the reality series of 12 Episodes called “ The United Basketball Diaries” by Ranvijay Singha which was filmed in Phoenix, Arizona. In late 2018, she was a part of the filming crew (one of the camerawomen) for the episode “The Asiatic Black bear” of the TV series On The Brink for Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. This show focuses on many endangered species across India together with the stories of researchers and scientists involved in protect them. Kartiki is also working on a long term project documenting and learning about an elusive cat species in the Western Ghats of Southern India.
Kartiki infuses her passion for adventure to bring new perspectives and a deeper public understanding to the environmental and humanitarian issues that define our times. She strives to document our natural world and to help others better understand the profound connection that we share with it. On the cultural side, she focuses on capturing the diversity of cultures and tribes across the world where she seeks to give a platform to women and indigenous tribes, especially those working to conserve nature. Kartiki focuses on solutions and highlight projects that show success stories where conservation is working to give hope.
.https://www.instagram.com/kartikigonsalves/ ; www.earthspectrum.org ; www.maptia.com/kartikigonsalves