The Elephant In The Bedroom by James Roque and Chye-Ling Huang

We're stoked for Sanjana Khusal and Mayen Mehta who have been selected as participants for Script to Screen's South Shorts mentorship programme supporting new and emerging screenwriters from the South Auckland community to develop their short film scripts.

Sanjana says, "being new to filmmaking, I am incredibly grateful to have been welcomed with open arms. I’m very excited to explore my cultural identity as a New Zealand born Indian and bring this to my scriptwriting. Growing up in Pukekohe, I was lost and confused as a girl of colour surrounded by western culture. I know so many people who share similar experiences of cultural dysphoria. This programme is an open space, among like-minded creatives, that I hope to create scripts that resonate with Pan-Asian viewers."

Mayen, a South African born Kiwi-Indian writer, says "I am interested in exploring cross-cultural collision in my work. My short film for the South Shorts programme was an idea that was initially conceived during the PASC Short Cuts lab early last year. I thoroughly enjoy creative development and my goal from this programme is to be concise and elegant with my writing, dig deeper with story, establish strong character arcs with high stakes, and polish my s