Teacher in a Box

The School for Innovation was founded by a corporation determined to rebound our national economy by teaching design thinking to teenagers and putting the most promising prototypes into production. Here, a jaded teacher is coming to terms with being replaced by a digital avatar of herself. But when an abused teenage girl develops a design for a new product that stands to make millions for the corporation, the teacher must protect the girl’s best interests.

Director: Tanuj Chopra

Tanuj Chopra’s first feature film PUNCHING AT THE SUN about South Asian teenagers coming of age in Elmhurst, Queens premiered at Sundance, Tribeca and won the grand jury prize at the San Francisco International Asian American Film festival. Variety called the fiery debut “Distinctive, original and iconoclastic.” Other award winning titles he’s directed include Butterfly, Clap Clap, Carbon Dated and the ITVS Futurestates film PIA about a runaway genderbending android. He is also the co-writer, director, and editor of the popular episodic female comedy mini-series NICE GIRLS CREW starring Sheetal Sheth, Michelle Krusiec and Lynn Chen.

Tanuj is currently working on industrial and independent projects like crowd-funded indie feature NATURE BOY, Brown girl stoner comedy GRASS, and the VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS development grant for the anti Silicon Valley story CHEE and T.

In his downtime, he facilitates the NEW VOICES FOR YOUTH filmmaking initiative, a program dedicated to empowering creativity and civic engagement for teenagers. He holds a BA in Art Semiotics from Brown University and an MFA in film direction from Columbia University where he was awarded the Dean’s Fellowship.