Kunga Choephel ’23

Kunga Choephel ’23 is a Tibetan director, cinematographer, and producer hailing from Queens, NY.

Proud son of an immigrant taxi driver, his work carries strong undercurrents of class, identity, and family.

His film “This is closest to how the last weeks of March felt like” was curated at Short of the Week, and screened at festivals like NFFTY, and Tide Film Festival.

He is the co-founder of a production co-op “Are We There Yet?” a group of NYC filmmakers who specialize in making branded content. Clients include Mellon Foundation, Children’s Aid, META, Ray Bans, Pinterest, FADER, Topicals, and Adolescent Content.

As a senior here, Choephel he was awarded the Chair’s Award for Outstanding Filmmaker and The Jesse Feigelman Film Award. His film “This is closest to how the last of March weeks felt like” is a personal account of the Covid-19 pandemic in America and its effects on an immigrant family as seen through the eyes of a student quarantined at his barren university.

Kunga is a recipient of the Storyline Apprenticeship and Manhattan Film Institute scholarship.