Anjali Nayar facts for kids

Anjali Nayar is a filmmaker from Canada and India. She used to be a scientist who studied Earth's climate. She also created a special set of tools called TIMBY. These tools help people report on important topics. This includes protecting the environment and making sure everyone's rights are respected.

Anjali Nayar's newest film is called Hack Your Health. It explores how the health of our gut (our stomach and intestines) affects our whole body. This movie was released on Netflix in April 2024. It quickly became one of the top 10 films in 77 countries!

She has made other interesting films too. One is a short fantasy film named Closer. It won an audience award in Canada in 2022. Another film, Silas, was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017. This movie is about people who use smartphones to report when land is taken unfairly. Famous people like Ed Zwick and Leonardo DiCaprio helped make Silas.

Anjali Nayar's first full-length film was Gun Runners. It came out in 2016 and Netflix bought it. This film tells the story of two Kenyan warriors. They traded their weapons for running shoes to become marathon runners.

Besides making films, Anjali Nayar has written and filmed for many news groups. These include Nature, Reuters, CBC News, the BBC, and NPR. She studied filmmaking at Columbia University. She also has degrees in environmental studies and space science. Anjali Nayar created TIMBY (This Is My Backyard). These digital tools help activists safely share their stories.

Anjali Nayar's Films

Silas (2017)

Silas is a film about an activist named Silas Siakor. He leads a group of citizen journalists. They bravely risk their lives to show unfair actions and illegal activities. These actions often involve big companies and the government in Liberia.

The film was first shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017. Later, Amazon bought it. Silas won many awards and was nominated for others. These included awards from the Directors' Guild of Canada and the African Academy Awards.

While making Silas, Anjali Nayar worked with activists in Liberia. Together, they created the TIMBY reporting tools. These tools are now used in 40 countries and 21 languages around the world.

Gun Runners (2016)

Gun Runners tells the story of two warriors from Northern Kenya. They decide to give up their AK-47s. Instead, they pick up running shoes and dream of becoming marathon runners. The National Film Board of Canada produced this film. It was first shown at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto in May 2016. The shows were completely sold out!

Many films about countries in the global south focus on big problems. But Gun Runners shows a different side of Kenya. It shares a close look at modern Kenya through the eyes of two friends. They are trying to make their way in life. The film is like a modern version of a "rags-to-riches" story, set in Kenya.

Sadly, after the film was finished, one of the main characters, Robert Matanda, and his wife, Stella Ebei, died in a car accident. Their youngest child, named Anjali, was with them but survived.

Anjali Nayar and the other filmmakers started a special fund. They are now helping to care for the seven children that Matanda supported. Nayar started a GoFundMe campaign in April 2016. In just a few weeks, they raised over $10,000 for the children.

Gun Runners has been shown in theaters, including in Australia. It was also screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2017. You can watch Gun Runners on Netflix.

Just A Band (In Production)

Just A Band is a film that is still being made. It follows four young people in Nairobi, Kenya. They leave university to form an art collective. They want to create a different kind of life for themselves. In the film, the four friends make a promise to go to space!

Just A Band mixes many cool cultural ideas. These include music from Sun Ra, Kung Fu movies, and hip hop. This film shows a more real picture of city life in Africa than you might imagine.

Other Film Projects

Anjali Nayar has directed and written many other films and projects. Here is a list of some of them:

TIMBY Technology: Reporting Tools

Anjali Nayar started TIMBY (This is My Backyard) in 2012. It's a set of digital tools. These tools help groups deal with difficult problems quickly and safely. The TIMBY tools include a mobile app, a special investigation dashboard, and an easy-to-use story maker.

TIMBY mostly focuses on reporting about the environment. But other groups use it for related issues. These include health, corruption, and human rights. The TIMBY technology was built in Liberia and Kenya. It was made with help from the Sustainable Development Institute and its founder, Silas Siakor.

The system works in over 20 languages in 40 countries.

• In Kenya, it helps forest communities fight unfair evictions.
• In Mozambique, Indonesia, and other countries, it tracks illegal logging.
• In India, it helps workers report problems.
• In Mexico, it helps check facts about natural disasters.
• In Liberia, it helps communities collect proof of company and government mistakes.
• In Vietnam, it documents when land is unfairly taken.
• In Kenya, health workers use it to report issues inside hospitals.

The mobile app lets groups collect audio, video, photos, and other information. The app uses lots of colors and icons. This makes it easy for people who might not read well. Reports can be sent to the investigation dashboard using a phone or a secure file. Right now, the TIMBY app is for Android phones.

The investigation platform helps groups check reports. It also helps them find connections between issues, people, and companies. You can see this information on a list or a map.

Groups can use the story maker to easily drag and drop verified reports. This helps them write stories, blogs, and press releases. Stories can be sent to lawmakers, printed, or put on a website. All the original proof (photos, videos) can be downloaded from the website.

TIMBY has worked with activist groups, NGOs, and news groups around the world. They help these groups report safely. TIMBY is run by a group of software developers, designers, activists, and storytellers.

Anjali Nayar's Journalism Work

Anjali Nayar has written and filmed a lot for Nature, Reuters, Al Jazeera, and the CBC News.

Nature Magazine

When Anjali Nayar wrote for Nature, she focused on climate, the environment, and countries in the Global South.

• In 2009, she hiked in Bhutan's mountains. She reported on projects to stop dangerous glacial melt. This melt can cause floods called Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). She won an award for this work.
• That same year, she reported on forest projects in Madagascar. These projects aimed to reduce carbon emissions. She won another award for this.
• Her other stories for Nature included features on finding viruses and reports on education in the Global South.

CBC News

Anjali Nayar's work for CBC included multimedia projects around sports events. She also made short documentaries and news reports.

• Before the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Nayar traveled with a soccer ball from Ivory Coast to South Africa. She wrote a blog about her journey. She also covered the teams from Africa during the competition. Her blog was very popular.
• She did similar projects for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2011 and the FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany in 2011.
• Nayar often used sports to talk about bigger topics like national pride and politics.
• She was a competitive soccer player herself. Her step-sister, Rhian Wilkinson, plays for the Canadian Women's National Soccer Team.
• Nayar also made many short documentaries for CBC shows like "Dispatches."

Reuters

Anjali Nayar worked for Reuters TV in Africa from 2007 to 2012. She covered many different stories:

• The 2012 World Cup in South Africa.
• Kenya's election violence.
• Zanzibar's clove industry.
• Liberia's logging industry.
• Medical trials.
• Carbon trading based on Gabon's forests.

Her work included short documentaries and news reports for TV and print.

Education and Background

Anjali Nayar started in science, studying climate change and remote sensing. But in the early 2000s, she became a filmmaker and storyteller. She was frustrated by how the media often got climate change facts wrong.

In 2005, she turned down a scholarship to continue her science studies at the University of Oxford. Instead, she took a Fulbright Scholarship to study journalism at Columbia University in New York City. Her first journalism piece was about a New York climate modeler. It was published in The New York Times.

• She has a Master's degree in Documentary from Columbia University.
• She also has a Master's in Environmental Change and Management from Linacre College, University of Oxford. There, she studied how satellite images could predict city growth and malaria rates in African cities.
• She also studied remote sensing and space studies at the International Space University.

As a college student, Nayar earned two degrees in biology and geology at the University of British Columbia. She played varsity Soccer there. She also spent a year studying coral reefs and climate change in Australia. Before college, she was the top student at John Abbott College. She went to high school at the Trafalgar School for Girls in Montreal, Canada.