Zambian-born alumna nominated for ‘student Emmy’
Emmy-nominated alumna Shamola Kharkar hopes to continue her film career in India and Africa. Photo courtesy of Shamola Kharkar
Chapman alumna Shamola Kharkar started off her entertainment journey telling stories by the light of a bonfire when the electricity would shut off in her home in Zambia, Africa.
After spending seven years at Chapman to receive her master’s degree in business administration degree and master of fine arts in film production, she was nominated for a College Television Award by the Television Academy Foundation, which is often referred to as a student Emmy, for a film she worked on in association with the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.
Inspired by her love for storytelling and her experiences growing up on her family’s rose farm in Zambia, she balances her time between freelance producing, creating a virtual reality startup and entering her thesis film into festivals across the country.
Q: You were recently nominated for a College Television Award. What’s the premise of your nominated film?
A: In spring 2016, I produced a short film in association with Dodge called “The Monkey King is in Town.” It’s a nine-minute story about this young Chinese-American boy who has to dress up for a Halloween party, and all of his friends dress up as superheroes. He wants to be Superman, but (his friends) tell him he can’t because he doesn’t look the part. His mom suggests he looks deeper inside his culture and see what he can find, and he ends up finding the Monkey King. He’s teased at school by a bully but the story is about how you have to look at what is inside you to beat a cultural bias. We use the bully as an external conflict, but inside the conflict is getting over any cultural stereotype and breaking the boundaries that one has in their subconscious mind.
Q: What made you choose Chapman?
A: I was a very confused child. I wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to be a solar scientist. I wanted to do something where I could combine everything and create different types of movies and content where I can tell someone about science and history. I’m very used to personalized schooling. I went to a small school in Zambia, and I was always used to my teachers knowing my name. That’s what I looked for when selecting schools. I only applied to Chapman.
Q: What are some of your favorite Chapman experiences?
A: I love seeing how Chapman has transformed. I remember in 2010 walking on a campus where the majority of the people where white. I came from a school with students from over 52 countries. I had never experienced white people on a campus, and that freaked me out. It’s always refreshing to see what’s changing at Chapman. This school is constantly growing, and it should be.
Q: What has it been like being at Chapman for seven years?
A: People think I’m crazy when I tell them I’ve been at Chapman for seven years. This is my home. Even though it annoys me that half of this place shuts down by 10 p.m., it’s still been one-third of my life. I’m forever a panther.
Q: What was the awards process like for your film?
A: We put (the film) into as many festivals as we could. We got into the San Diego International Film Festival. My director said we got nominated to put our film in the College Television Awards, so we applied. We (submitted) it in December 2016, and in March, we found out that we got accepted. It was for best picture, but because the producer accepts the award for best picture, I was Emmy-nominated. We had the awards show last May, and that was one of the most amazing opportunities I could have gotten.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m producing screen actors’ and theater students’ thesis films. I’m not doing it to get paid for it, but I’m doing my service to the school. I am also working on a startup in (virtual and augmented reality) entertainment. We are creating this package product where we combine VR technology in our film, so it’s basically an animated, 360-degree image that tells a story.
Q: If you went back to Zambia, what would you be working on?
A: If I have to move back to Zambia because I can’t get my US visa, I’m trying to be proactive and come up with a plan of what I can do. I’m trying to set up a film academy to start really pushing film in Zambia. Our president just put in mandates to encourage filmmaking, and people can pick up cameras and film, but there’s no formal teaching or understanding of how to put everything together.
Q: What are your goals for the future?
A: I want to be a traveling filmmaker. I want to go back to India and experience the Indian filmmaking style, because those are my roots. I want to take that same format and apply it to Africa. My goal is to travel to every single country in Africa (to encourage) filmmaking. Our world is so enveloped by technology. I want original storytelling methods to come back. I grew up every evening listening to stories. We would lose electricity and lights. We would step into our backyard, light a little bonfire and tell stories. That’s something that I know my ancestors have done. I feel like there are so many times on screen that we’re surrounded by Western culture. There’s so much more out there that people need to hear about.
Correction: An earlier version of this story had incorrect information about Kharkar’s award. She was nominated for a College Television Award, which is often referred to as a “student Emmy,” but it is not an Emmy award.