Deepa Nair's work spans across documentary, experimental film and dance. She is an interdisciplinary scholar in the field of English Literature and Cinema Studies and a video content creator. Her video work explores the relationship between body, memory, movement, and affect. She is especially interested in ritualistic and ethnic dance forms as sites of sacred connectivity and heightened affect.
Her experimental screen dance work, Navarasa, the Awakening, was part of International Video Exhibit at Aggregate Space Gallery, Oakland in 2020. Her short dance documentary, The Nangiarkoothu Artist (2022) was the official selection at multiple film festivals in US and Canada.
Deepa holds an MPhil in English Literature from the University of Delhi, India and a MA in Cinema Studies from San Francisco State University. She was an Associate Professor of English Literature and taught Literature and cinema courses at undergraduate level in New Delhi, India.She currently teaches Film Studies and Documentary Film Production at Chabot College.
Deepa is a member of Brown Girl Doc Mafia, BIPOC Doc Editors, A-Doc and Bichitra Collective .Deepa serves as the Art Commissioner of San Mateo County, representing district 2. She is also a dance practitioner, trained in the classical Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam.
ACTIVE PROJECTS
UnHome, an experimental screen dance film on home and the immigrant identity.
Stage- Post Production
Funding status- Self funded and looking for support in grant and funds for production and support in distribution, particularly in video art gallery submissions
From Civil Rights to Crunch Cakes
A short creative profile documentary on a beloved bakery run by 85 year Claire Mack, San Mateo's first African American woman to hold the position of mayor for three terms.
Stage- In Production
Supported by The For Us, By Us Filmmaker Incubator , Filmmakers Collaborative SF,2025.

