Written in Partnership with Tedfuel
Since their inception, movies have enabled audiences to experience and empathize with the lives of others, evoking emotion that has the potential to instigate real-life action and initiate positive change.
As a film editor whose work embodies this truth, Kartikye Gupta has curated a career with an enormous accumulative impact on his audience, helping to further an array of philanthropic and ethical causes.
Since his debut film Dr. Elevator, which was acclaimed by Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis and screened at more than 50 film festivals, has used editing to bring attention to many relevant themes and new modes of thinking about editing. His next film, released the following year, was titled Please Don’t Call the Cops and premiered at the biggest South Asian Film Festival (SAIFF) – where it was nominated for the editor’s first HBO award.
As a film editor, Gupta creates a picture that flows through the audience’s psyche like water, leaving it enriched but completely free of all traces of their work, as natural as lived life. With films like “Flint Tale”, and “Cold Wall”, Gupta has perfected the art of bringing the different and the diverse into a connected, unified whole. His representation of minorities and immigrants subverts the traditional American hegemony and gives a powerful voice to those on the periphery.
His work in Vishal Solanki’s film Mirage exceeds expectations. Despite the fact the film is set in contemporary Los Angeles, as the editor of the film, Gupta took the creative liberty to set the rhythm of the film similar to the 90s, highlighting the intimacy between the characters and underlining the complex world they lived in. With only two words of dialogue in the entire film, it was the pacing that was established editorially that drew the line between the present and the past of its cinematic world. Things like these ended up scooping the film a qualification in BAFTA while receiving three other film awards, including a well-earned nod for Best Film Editing.
Since then, Gupta has gained recognition from major networks such as HBO, CNN and Vice as well as at major international film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival and the Oscar-qualifying AFI Film Fest.
The editor’s talent was also recognized by Facebook, with Gupta obtaining a crucial role in visualization of the viral Metaverse film – which introduced the future of virtual reality, as envisioned by Facebook, to the masses – premiering to over 15 million active viewers across the globe. Similarly, his partnerships with AT&T, Nike, and Reebok also demonstrate a strong human element. From Times Square screens to your TV set, his content has even made its foray into virtual reality.
Kartikye Gupta’s creative editing veered towards charitable, and humanitarian projects, where he used his skills as an editor to incite positive change.
His collaboration with the non-profit ‘Hope B-Lit’ and ‘YouWeCan’ – headed by sports personality and humanitarian Yuvraj Singh – to edit the documentary, Got Cancer. Due to its far-reaching impact, the film won more than a dozen awards, including Best Editing at the AOF Megafest Las Vegas Film Festival. For the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, he partnered with advertising agency, Electica to edit more than 10 video campaigns ensuring free and fair elections, which were seen by over 6 million people throughout the United States.
His editing for “Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty” again combined social consciousness with community needs and focused on supporting dependent economies, workers, and communities to diversify away from fossil fuels. The film was an important part of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference attended by more than 100 world leaders, including POTUS Joe Biden.
His partnership with director Joanna Friendman for the largest non-profit firm in the U.S. Children’s Law Center of California, makes a crucial part of empowering and strengthening children with illnesses, their families, and their communities. Showcasing three films at the annual Art of Advocacy Gala, helped the CLC raise over $200k for children in foster care.
Kartikye Gupta’s career – which has included a huge number of high profile projects, cinematic explorations of the immigrant experience – highlights how editing brings our tales to life. In the words of Gupta, “With every new story to be told, there arises a new way of telling it and it’s the editor’s duty to help perfect that way for the audience.”
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