ANOSMIA

An Indian-American woman races through Los Angeles to find her elderly mother a COVID vaccine in January 2021.

  • Monya De
    Director
  • Monya De
    Writer
  • Monya De
    Producer
  • Samina Engel
    Key Cast
  • Vijaya Kumari
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes 30 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 6, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    Bengali, English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Monya De

Monya De grew up around the Midwest and East Coast, where she remembers writing a sketch for high school and casting herself as a film director so she could yell "Quiet on the set". She received a bachelor's degree with honors from Stanford University, where she studied playwriting with Cherrie Moraga and theatre and international development in the prestigious Stanford-in-Oxford program(me). Dr De was named the nation's top medical student in the communication of science by the American Medical Association and graduated from UC-Irvine with distinction. She is an actor and journalist, and has been a finalist for multiple journalism awards as well as a finalist for the Harvard Fellowship in Minority Health Policy. She is the co-author of the book "Minerals: The Forgotten Nutrient", and co-hosted the Sleep Secrets show for Sleep.com during 2020-2021.

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Director Statement

January 2021. The Capitol insurrection had just torn the nation's sense of safety. Los Angeles had suffered untold deaths in the COVID-19 pandemic. And the vaccine was like the golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. ANOSMIA is based on my real experiences as a COVID volunteer vaccinator for the LA County Department of Public Health, on the "vaccine chasing" craze in Los Angeles on which I was quoted in The Guardian, and on the frustrations of oldest daughters around the country who struggled to get their parents vaccinated. Gauri and Ma also represent a family I haven't seen represented on screen in America; bereaved, struggling with money, and ethnically Indian.