Swarnavel Eswaran is Professor in the Department of English and the School of Journalism at Michigan State University, USA. He is author of Madras Studios: Narrative, Genre, and Ideology in Tamil Cinema (2015) and Tamil Cinema Reviews: 1931-1960 (2020). His research focuses on Tamil and Indian cinema’s history, aesthetics, politics, contemporary digital cinema, and concomitant changes. His essays have appeared in Screen, Jump Cut, South Asian Popular Culture, and Caste: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion. He is also a filmmaker and his documentaries include Nagapattinam: Waves from the Deep (2018), Hmong Memories at the Crossroad (2016), Migrations of Islam (2014), and Unfinished Journey: A City in Transition (2012). His fiction feature Kattumaram (2019) has been screened at over fifty international film festivals, including at Frameline, InsideOut, and Kashish.