George Thengummoottil


George Thengummoottil is wildlife filmmaker and documentary editor, from India whose film has been screened at various International film festivals like Pokhara International Mountain Film Festival and International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala. He is also the founder of Keratoconus Foundation India, a non profit organization which aims at helping Keratoconus patients.
His recent film The Return of Sangai, a documentary about the endangered deer Sangai at the only floating National Park in the world, Keibul Lamjao National Park made for the forest department of Manipur was released at the curtain raiser function of Sangai festival 2017, held at Keibul Lamjao National Park, Manipur in the presence of the Chief Minister of Manipur Shri N. Biren Singh.

Education

George Thengummoottil did his primary school education at Marthoma Senior Secondary School, when his father was working at the State Bank of India at Kozhencherry and later moved to his home town at Thidanad where he continued his school education at St. Antony's Public School.
He did his graduation in Computer Science at Marian College Kuttikkanam, Peermade. During when he wrote his first book The Story of Peermade, a coffee table book about the history of Peermade. He obtained Masters in Computer Science from Dr G R Damodaran College of Science, Coimbatore and later another Masters in Communication and Journalism from PSG College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore.

Life

George was born in the town of Palakkad, Kerala in 1985, the eldest of two children born to Joseph TV and his wife, Rani Joseph and lives at Kappadu, Kanjirappally.

Keratoconus

During his teenage, he was affected by Keratoconus, a degenerative disorder of the eye and was blind by the age of 13. He had to stop his normal stream of studies and activities. Later he did Corneal transplantation and could partially recover vision in one of his eyes.

Career

George was campus placed in the field of Machine Vision and Robotics at Lucid Imaging, Bangalore under Dr Anand Prasad Chinnaswamy a pioneer in Machine Vision Technology, after his post graduation. Even though the company offered cover of his treatments he could not continue for a long time due to Keratoconus.
After a long break of travel, George was invited to work as a lecturer at Sherubtse College in Bhutan, where he served for several Years. Later he worked as a journalist with Times of India, Coimbatore and later worked with renowned wildlife filmmaker Sandesh Kadur at Felis Creations before starting as an independent wildlife filmmaker.

Film making

From childhood, George had his personal interest in writing and filmmaking. He has acted in several plays during his school and college days. Even though he wanted to persuade his career in filmmaking, he was not allowed to, due to Keratoconus. But after his Masters in Journalism, he started making small edits, while working at Felis Creations and started as a documentary editor.

Initiatives

George was also motivational speaker and has been involved in many technical and art projects. He was instrumental to popularize the use of solar panels for filming in remote places.

Community Initiatives

George is the founder of Keratoconus Foundation India, a charitable trust registered under Indian Trusts Act, 1882 which guides Keratoconus patients in India to lead a better life and support them economically.

Books

Filmography

Nominations