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Dr.(Mrs.) Susan Sharma chose documentary film making as a second career, after seeking voluntary retirement
from State Bank Of India where she was Assistant General Manager. She received her doctorate in Management
Information Systems from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD) in 1998.
She is a Fellow of Indian Council of Social Sciences Research and has attended a number of national and
international seminars including
- A research paper "ENVIRONMENT EDUCATION AS A PROCESS OF LIFE LONG LEARNING - CASE STUDY OF A WEB BASED COMMUNITY" was presented at the Interactive Computer-aided Learning (ICL) conference organized from the Carinthia Tech Institute (CTI) Villach, Austria from 27 September till 29 September 2006.
- "Conflux 2005": The e-Government Conference, 17-19 October 2005, New Delhi (Presentation of Paper ‘E-governance for Conservation’)
- 50th World Conference of International Council of Small Business, at Washington D.C from 15-18 June 2005. (Presented a paper ‘Information Systems In SMEs in India’)
- Third International Galliformes Symposium 2004 held at Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun 5-9th April 2004
- Bombay Natural History Society Centenary seminar "A look at Threatened Species" at IIT, Powai, Mumbai 13-15 November 2003
- National Symposium on Elephant Conservation, Management and Research at Haridwar, 16-20 December 2001. Presented a paper
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Dr. Sharma is also the founder of IndianWildlifeClub.com, a community based portal
to spread awareness about nature and wildlife. The portal organizes photo exhibitions
on wildlife and also produces short documentaries. In 1999 her first film 'Sarang-The Peacock'
was completed. The 22 minute long film on the Indian peafowl examines its life from
hatching to adulthood through a story told by the camera.
The film was screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival held in Mumbai from
3rd to 9th February 2000. Her second video 'To Corbett With Love' was completed in January 2000 and
has Corbett National Park as the backdrop. The film makes a subtle statement through
Subedar Ali, the mahout who was attacked by a tiger and spent a year in hospital
recovering from a torn scalp. He inspires us, not in so many words, but from the
love he has for the tiger how he chose to return to his job as a mahout in the same
forest. The short film was shown at the Delhi Interna tional Film festival for short
and animation films held from 3-9 February 2001 and was also screened at the Y.B
Chavan Auditorium, Mumbai in November 2002 as one of the films selected at the IDPA
Awards function. Three other short films followed as part of a proposed series "Asian
Heritage-Natural & Cultural". These are "Seoul-Where Modernity bows to Tradition", a film shot in
South Korea and "Wilderness Nepal", on the natural history of the Himalayan
Kingdom. " Living With The Park- Ranthambore National Park" her latest
film, is a look at the need for locals to have a stake in protecting the national
park. The first four films were completed between 1999 and 2004 and are being telecast
by Gyandarshan Channel of Indira Gandhi National Open University. "Living With The
Park" has been completed in July 2005.
Sarang-the Peacock has been screened at India Habitat Centre, India International
Centre and Akshara Theatre. Both Habitat and IIC have had multiple screenings on
behalf of WWF(India) and WPA (World Pheasants Association). To Corbett with Love,
Wilderness Nepal and Living with the Park have also been screened at least once
in Habitat and IIC. Seoul, a travelogue, has been requisitioned by the Korean Embassy
for screenings at the Embassy.
"Seoul-Where
Modernity bows to Tradition" was screened at ‘Journeys’ International Travel
Film Festival Kerala, Sep 9-11, 2005. All the films were screened as part of the
Mediterranean Environmental Award 06, held in Turkey in September, 2006.
The films are being produced and distributed in VCD format by ExcelHomevideos, Mumbai.
All the five short films have been certified "Educational" by the Central Censor
Board. IndianWildlifeClub.com is an empanelled media producer for the Directorate
of Adult Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
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