Greensburg native will discuss directorial debut at virtual panel
It’s been quite a year for Greensburg native Sujata Day, taking her directorial debut film, “Definition, Please,” to film festivals throughout the world.
Most of those festivals were virtual for health and safety reasons, but that did not stop the film from racking up accolades. It earned Best Feature Film at the Indian Film Festival of Cincinnati — where Day also was nominated as best director — and the Outstanding Directorial Debut award at the South Asian Film Festival of America. Day also won the Fresh Narrative Voice award at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.
On Thursday, Day will be joined by other young filmmakers with Pittsburgh connections for a virtual panel at PITTch!, a call for short film scripts organized by the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Creativity, with the goal of choosing two that will be funded and produced in 2022.
Day, who lives in Los Angeles and is a recurring character on HBO’s “Insecure,” will be joined by writer Kelechi Urama and writer, director and producer Jumoke Davis.
“I’ll be talking about making ‘Definition, Please’ in Greensburg,” Day said. “I’ve been really excited to talk about the making of the film and how Greensburg really came together as a community to help us out and achieve what we wanted to put onscreen.”
Scenes for the film were shot at the Palace Theatre on West Otterman Street, as well as downtown and at Day’s childhood home in Greensburg.
In addition, Day recently secured the support of “ The Office” alum, writer and actor Mindy Kaling as an executive producer for the film.
“She was just a huge supporter,” Day said. “We had our team send it over to her earlier this year, and she posted to social media about it.”
Day likened the request to a marriage proposal.
“I reached out and asked if she wanted to be executive producer, and she said yes!” Day said with a laugh.
The PITTch! panel will take place online at 7 p.m. Thursday. There is no cost to attend, but registration is required via EventBrite.com. Enter “PITTch! Presents” into the search box.
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.
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