Akash Sherman | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1995 (age 29–30) |
| Occupation | Film director |
Akash Sherman is a Canadian film director. [1]
Sherman was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, where his parents were a doctor and a pharmacist. [2] He left Alberta to study filmmaking at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), in Toronto, in 2015.
Sherman was studying film at Ryerson University when he began working on the script for his first feature film, Clara. [3] In 2015, after a year of school, he sold the script and dropped out to make the film, claiming that doing so was his education. [2] On September 10, 2018, CBC News quoted him at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival saying Clara's premiere "felt like graduation". [4] [5]
Sherman and his family flew to India for the film's showing at the Mumbai Film Festival in October 2018. [2]
In its review of Clara, Scientific American noted Sherman's dedication to scientific accuracy. [6] They quoted Sherman describe an insight he had, in art history class, that famous artists of the past were out creating art, when they were his age, not studying art.
When Seth Needle of Screen Media Films acquired the US streaming rights for Clara, he called Sherman "one of the best young filmmakers to watch today". [7]
Sherman's documentary film Singhs in the Ring, about Punjabi Canadian wrestler Gama Singh and his family, is slated to premiere at the 2025 Calgary International Film Festival. [8]
The film flirts with sci-fi, but director/co-writer Akash Sherman is ultimately more concerned with grappling with matters of the heart than with extraterrestrials.
Sherman's family still lives in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, where his mother is a pharmacist and father a doctor.
At only twenty-three years of age, Akash Sherman has helmed an optimistic science fiction feature that not only got me interested in learning more about astronomy, but made me leave the theater thinking about what else is out there in our universe.
For Sherman, who also wrote the film, approaching the idea of life beyond Earth from a scientific perspective and coming from a place of spirituality didn't require two, mutually exclusive perspectives.
The story behind the story is that I was a 19-year-old film student in an art history class, and I had an epiphany that all the great artists throughout history who we were studying would probably be out creating something at my age, not sitting in a classroom.
'Clara amazed us in so many ways,' said Needle. 'From the strong filmmaking to the complex, engaging story to the emotional performances. All of it shows why Akash is one of the best young filmmakers to watch today. We're so happy to be working with him, Ari and the rest of the team.'