Elroy Pinto

As a filmmaker my training has been a mix of academic research after completing my Masters in Global Cinemas at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London, UK), and through pedagogical training in filmmaking and music with Kumar Shahani and Neela Bhagwat. My research, writing, and moving image practice are tied to the diverse story-telling practices of pre-modern South Asian art forms such as Indo-Persian miniature painting, medieval religious architecture, and Gwalior Khayal music tradition. I have continued to evaluate and situate these inquiries in their historical, cultural, economic, and political realms.   

My first film, 'Kaifiyat' was centered on visualizing early modern poetic traditions by layering them with Khayal compositions and movement from contemporary dance. I am particularly interested in how religious and philosophical systems intertwine to create a gendered worldview, and how this can be seen through the works of cinema. 

My second film has taken me to research Buddhist epics and to examine whether its synthesis with Indian Marxism can offer a way of critiquing the caste-class ideologies of Hindutva nationalism. The film premiered at the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal in 2025. 

Since 2019, I have been writing essays about working-class Catholic culture and history in Bombay.  These have led to to the creation of a series of non-fiction films titled 'Islands of Labour' and 'Bombay Triptych'. 

Previously, I taught cinema at Wilson College (University of Mumbai, India) and St Xaviers College and have curated film programmes for TARQ, a contemporary art gallery in Mumbai.  

In 2025 I was awarded the prestigious India Foundation for the Arts grant for a film on a ballad of the fishing community of Mumbai.  I was also selected as a Flaherty Fellow for their 70th iteration. 

Since 2023, I have been programming films for a Dalit-Ambedkarite space in Mumbai known as Nirmik Cultural Center. 

In years gone by I have worked in the digital culture of eSports. A sub-culture within the larger gaming framework. As a creative strategist I have provided direction and produced hundreds of story telling pieces through text and video for organisations like Fnatic and Level 99. 

My present research interests include sacred architecture, social stratification of the Catholics of Bombay, working-class history and culture, dialectical materialism, cultural theory, anti-caste works,  Heterodox (Nastika) South Asian epics, and the Indian New Wave Cinema.