CURRENT MISSION

Live for art for art sake. Pure creativity in art photography, animation films for children and experimental art films..

ABOUT ME

Nitin Donde has been taking photographs since his school days.

Interested in the visual arts, he left his management job in Indian Express and decided to live off his cameras since 1985. He has been the cameraman and director of more than 20 documentary films, some of which have featured in Mumbai International Film Festivals and the Unesco Festival of Documentary films.

In 1990, Nitin decided to work with children, exploring their creativity through the visual arts and experimenting with animation films. Films made by him and his students through the Animation Filmmaking Workshops that he conducts have featured in a Collection of Animation Films Made by Children of the World. Over the years, five such films have premiered at the Hiroshima International Animation Film Festival, Japan and the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, France.

Nitin spearheads a series of animation films he calls, “Traditional Tribal Arts in Animation”. He has been working with traditional tribal Indian artists and developing their art and folklore into animation films for children. These films have featured in the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival in Hollywood, Washington, Santa Fe and California. They have been screened in several film festivals and forums on ethnic Indian art.

Guided by the advice of renouned artist Late Meshomoshai Bon Bihari Ghosh, Nitin has been using his photographic art to study nature and the world around him. For 2 years he studied water, photographing it from the glaciers of the Himalayas and following the mountain stream to the river and the river to the sea; ending the study in the deserts of Rajasthan.

'€œTej'€ or '€œInner Glow'€ has also been an important subject in Nitin's photographic studies.

'€œSwambhu'€ or '€œSelf Appearing'€ images, there for a fraction of a second, glimpses of divinity in nature, can be seen in Nitin's work.

Nitin Photographs have featured in several exhibitions. Recently he was invited to screen his tribal art animation films and photographs of traditional tribal Indian artists and art works at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, France.

Presently Nitin teaches Animation Filmmaking to students at the Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Delhi and to more than 500 children across India.

In June 2009 he was invited to conduct a Children's animation filmmaking workshop organized by the YMCA at the Grant Middle School, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. His animation film scripts, “The Whirling Dervish” have been purchased by the One Skin Suit Inc. USA.

Special Mention:

Invited to the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, France in June, 2008 to:

1. Exhibit a collection of traditional tribal Indian paintings and photographs at Gallery Alter Mundi
2. Special screening of my tribal Indian art animation film, “Pot of Gold”
3. Workshop on “Traditional tribal Indian art in animation” at the Atelier de cinema d'animation d'annecy et de haute savoie.
4. Four of my animation filmmaking school children were invited to be the jury for the Annecy Young Jury Award for the best student film.
5. Certified by the Hiroshima International Film Festival as an Animation Film Instructor.

PHILOSOPHY

Nitin's Quotation:
'The probability of the absurd is equal and opposite to the probability of the obvious'.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am informal, easy going and love a good laugh. I am creative and artistic, nature loving and easy to get along with. I love to travel ...

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have been invited to several homes in Scotland, England, France and the US. I enjoy to cook Indian food and feed people so I have had a great time and made friends.

Interests

Photography, films, arts, nature, Himalayas, food, god! this list is endless :-)

• arts
• folklore
• photography
• documentaries
• film making
• festivals
• film festivals
• dining
• cooking
• indian food
• instructor
• technology
• movies
• traveling
• animation
• divinity
• visual arts

Music, Movies, and Books

This is endless and new ones keep happening all the time.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Lived with the tribes of India and in the Himalayan wilderness.

Teach, Learn, Share

People who are sensitive to children and nature are my guides and gurus.