Sanjay Rawal

Sanjay Rawal (born October 30, 1974) is an Indian-American documentary film director who lives in New York City. His first feature length film Food Chains premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in its Culinary Cinema Programme in 2014 ^[1] and had its US premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.^[2] Food Chains was produced by Smriti Keshari, Eva Longoria, Eric Schlosser, and Rawal himself. Forest Whitaker narrates.^[3] Rawal was a winner of the 2015 James Beard Foundation Award for Special/Documentary for Food Chains.^[4] The film itself shared the 2016 BritDoc Documentary Impact Award.^[5]

Rawal's second movie 3100: Run and Become was released in 2018. The film was featured on a number of podcasts including Dr. Rangan Chatterjee. “Running unites us. At one point, every culture on Earth relied on running. It’s baked into our DNA,” Rawal said.^[6] The film received generally positive reviews including by Kimber Myers of the Los Angeles Times. "Rawal's well-shot film is engaging - particularly for those with an interest in running and/or meditation," she wrote.^[7] Critic Pamela Powell went further, writing "3100: Run and Become beautifully captures the heart and inspiration of all who close their eyes, take a breath, and open their hearts to life."^[8]

Rawal's third film, Gather, was released straight-to-digital in September 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It received a New York Times Critic's Pick selection. Reviewer Lovia Gyarkye wrote, "The film wonderfully weaves personal stories with archival footage that contextualizes the continued violence against Native Americans. Rawal covers a substantial amount of ground and deftly balances the dense material without losing sight of the mission driving the bigger story: Healing from generational trauma sometimes starts with just one person." The film counted Jason Momoa as an Executive Producer.^[9] Mr. Momoa promoted the film on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.^[10] The film was awarded a James Beard Foundation Media Award on June 12, 2022, making Rawal a rare two-time winner.^[11]

Rawal was raised in northern California, where his father is a tomato breeder, and so Rawal was introduced to the agricultural industry at a young age.^[12] He began Food Chains in 2011, after witnessing the inequality in the fields of Florida.^[13] In March 2016, Rawal was thanked by the Bernie Sanders campaign for the licensing of related video footage used in the Sanders' advertisement titled "Tenemos Familias."^[14] Rawal has advocated against the power of large food monopolies and has pushed local, labor-friendly solutions to human rights abuses in the fields.^[15]

Rawal's second short documentary film, Challenging Impossibility, premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival^[16] and played in nearly 70 more.^[17] It won awards at several film festivals including at the Atlanta Shortsfest.^[18] His first film of any kind Ocean Monk won the Best Documentary Short Award at the 2010 St. Louis International Film Festival.^[19]

Prior to becoming a filmmaker, Rawal was deeply involved with international development and ran projects in over 40 nations.^[20] He worked on projects with celebrities like Wyclef Jean^[21] and Donna Karan.^[22] Rawal was also engaged in activism regarding peace, security, and women's issues—serving on the first men's committee for V-Day.^[23]

Much of his work has been inspired by his spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy^[20] and he has edited and published books by this leader—including America the Beautiful,^[24] which was read as an audiobook by Richard Dreyfuss^[25] as well as Guru Marathon, published by District Vision.^[26]

Sanjay is also a national-class Master's long-distance runner. He was first in the US half-marathon championship in 2023 for the Men's 45-49 category.^[27]