Work Experience
In 2023, he co-founded The River Project: A Peoples' Biography of Rivers, a trans-disciplinary initiative to re-author and conserve the intangible cultural heritage of riverine communities in Assam. Which was born out of a feature length documentary, he co-directed, edited and worked as the DOP on Morisika: The Story of the Boatman along with Vandana Menon in Assam. It focuses on themes of memory, hope and resilience of three riverine communities dependent on the Brahmaputra river in Assam. The “boatman” is a metaphor for connecting threads much as the boatmen themselves in Assam connect people and livelihoods.
He worked as the Director of photography for COLONIES IN CONFLICT: a feature length documentary film under the direction of Ms. Rajani Mani (Elephant Corridor Films). A story from India that turns the mirror to the plight of India’s wild honeybees as they navigate through the fast-changing environment that is bringing them face to face with the possibility of mass annihilation.
In 2020, in the middle of the worldwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he collaborated with Vandana Menon on a short film for CoVisions. CoVisions was a collection of shorts from 5 continents that documented their experiences of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown.
Between 2017-19, he worked for Srishti Films: a production house in the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, At Srishti Films he was part of the filming and post production crew for the Vikalp Sangam Series: a series of films on alternative initiatives in India.
He also worked on two films commissioned by ATREE on the affect of the invasive species Prosopis Juliflora in the Banni Grasslands in Kutch, Gujarat. The films focus on livelihoods, ecology and environment.
He was also part of the filming and post production crew for films on NABARDs initiatives in the Northeast India, filming crew for films on rain-fed agriculture for RRAN in Andhra Pradesh, films on the Forest Rights Act in Himachal Pradesh and Orissa. And a film on the importance of village governance for SETU Abhiyan in Kutch, Gujarat.
In 2016-17, Debashish completed a one-year film fellowship on wildlife conservation and cultural diversity of Northeast India with Green Hub in Tezpur, Assam. During the fellowship he did internship with WWF on Human-elephant conflict management in Assam, he made films for WII on Nomination of World Heritage site in Meghalaya, and worked for ONGC on a coffee table book where he photographed various CSR projects undertaken by ONGC in Assam.