CHE Media House

Studio

A documentary studio in the far south of India.

CHE Media House is based in Nagercoil, in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, where the Western Ghats run down towards the sea.

An aerial view of a wide river crossed by an arched bridge, with wetlands and hills beyond.
Kanyakumari district from the air.Still from K for Kuppai
Two dark figures hung with flower garlands, standing above a wall with trees behind them.
A garlanded figure above a shrine wall.Still from Sacred Stones

Why here

We work from here on purpose.

This is a part of the country with deep histories and very few cameras pointed at them: shrines kept by the families who live beside them, crafts handed down without a manual, stories that exist only as long as someone is alive to tell them.

We make documentaries about what we find. The studio covers the whole arc of a film, from research and writing through direction, cinematography, sound, edit and grade, so that nothing is lost between the people who shot it and the people who finish it.

So far that has meant the folk deities of the Tamil land, a union of women farmers bringing millets back to their fields, the election posters on either side of a state border, and hospital waste dumped beside a reservoir. The films are Sacred Stones, Reaping a Revolution, One Border, Two Politics and K for Kuppai.

What we believe

Craft in service of the truth.

Beautiful images matter. But the real work is understanding why a film should exist, who it is for, and what it owes the people in it.

  1. 01

    Every film has a job

    To record, to question, to preserve, to change a mind. We decide which before we begin, and measure every choice against it.

  2. 02

    Less noise, more signal

    No trends, no filler, no narration telling you what to feel. We cut anything that has not earned its place.

  3. 03

    The subject comes first

    A documentary borrows someone’s life for a while. We try to return it with care, and in a form they recognise.

Find us

CHE House, Christhunagar Main RoadNagercoil – 629003Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, India

Working together

We make films alongside the people who know a subject best: researchers, institutions and the communities themselves.

If you hold an archive, lead an organisation or belong to a community with a story that needs a film, we would like to hear from you.

How we work

Start a film

Have a story that should be on record?

Tell us who it is about and why it matters now. A few lines is enough to begin.

Studio
Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu