Tara Sachdeva

Founding Director of Compass Presents, responsible for creative vision, strategic development, and project production. Expertise in expanded cinema, creating immersive live shows that blend cult films with performance elements such as dance and projection mapping. Committed to showcasing underrepresented cultural assets, including archival footage and community narratives. Nineteen years of experience engaging with underserved communities informs all creative endeavors.

Dynamic, multidisciplinary leader with 19 years experience heading a cultural organisation delivering innovative film, performance, and heritage events. Specialising in immersive screenings, community-driven festivals, and cross-sector collaborations.

• CEO / Artistic Director – Strategic Direction of company development; Vision-led direction of company's creative work
• Project Lead & Creative Producer – Leadership across expanded cinema projects, festivals, and heritage activations
• Researcher / Curator – Expertise in archival film, public engagement, and storytelling

Current & Ongoing Projects (2024 – Present) 

• Monty Python and the FOLEY Grail 50th Anniversary Tour – UK-wide tour with audience participation sound-effects
• Stokes Croft Family Days – Community heritage festivals in Bristol
• SPIN – Global academic collaboration on secrecy & ignorance; R&D lead

Expanded Cinema & Participatory Film Projects 

2023–24

• Yos Dances The Red Shoes (BFI/FAN) – National cinema release, Director
• Expanded Screenings (Summer of Soul, Mulholland Drive)
• 100 Years of 16mm (techo live score to archive film; 16mm film workshops)
• Cycle Cinema - pedal-powered cinema with Community Curators

2016–22

• The Caligari Experience, Monty Python and the FOLEY Grail, – Expanded screenings
• Singin’ in the Rain, The Wicker Man, The Shining – Immersive classics for BFI Seasons
• Arcadia (with Adrian Utley), Dockyards, Demos, New Directions, Remixing the Archives – Archive-based film events
• Oracles in Sepia - multi-artform project blending archival film and multiple artistic commissions
• Minack Double Bill, On the Rocks, Celluloid Sail – Site-specific live cinema, including touring show on tall-ship

 Placemaking & Heritage Projects

• House Party on Henley Street – Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
• Around the World in BS5 & Stokes Croft Calling - Community Co-Created, promenade performances
• The Box Shorts, Crafting History – Archive commissions with Tate St Ives, BFI and The Box Plymouth

Participatory & Educational 

• Quantum Magic, Hunt for the Wilderpeople (South Bristol Community Cinema) – Community & science engagement
• My Hidden Town – RSC collaboration on place-based storytelling
• Somewhere to Call Home – Youth poetry/film project

Festivals & Conferences 

• Compass Festivals (2007–13)
• Core stage and area curator for Shambala Festival (2009-Ongoing)
• Interactive, archive and mixed media sculptural exhibition, UNESCO Creative Cities Annual Conference, Katowice, 2018
• installations and performance interventions for Magnetic Fields Festival in Rajasthan, India ((2022-Ongoing).
• Interactive installations at Glastonbury, Boom Town, Balter, Larmer Tree, Wilderness, Nozstock, and Love Saves The Day festivals (2010-Ongoing)

Panellist:

Future of the Cinema Experience (Solent University, 2022)

Future of Live Cinema (Live Cinema UK, 2021)

Cinema Rediscovered Festival (2019)

Guest Lecturer: 

University of Exeter (annually, ongoing), UWE, University of Bath, Babbasa, Film Hub SW, and BFI FAN

Community Outreach Engager & Educator, Bristol City Council, 01/01/09 - 12/31/21, 

Designed and delivered creative programmes for diverse and underserved communities in filmmaking, public speaking, housing, filmmaking, Basic Skills, animation, and more.

Available on request.