Kalani Gacon is a filmmaker from the beautiful small, misty town of Katoomba, Australia who tells the stories of disappearing ways of life, people’s dreams, and the frictions of life facing human beings in the changing world.
He has worked across 4 continents in search of stories that touch the heart. He began his career working in TV and News at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which led him to working professionally in top Hollywood productions in Vancouver. Since a teenager, Kalani has been living and working in Nepal as a social worker and filmmaker, using filmmaking as a medium for change and transformation.
In 2015 he directed/produced ‘Bhukampa’, a hybrid documentary about the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal told from the perspectives of children, which led a successful impact campaign that was able to directly improve the life of the participants greatly.
In 2019 he directed/produced ‘Journey to the Centre of the Heart’, an award-winning feature documentary about outward migration in Nepal, and the inward migration of foreigners to the same land.
In 2020, he wrote/directed/co-produced ‘Sapana ko Awaz’ (The Sound of Dreaming), a short film about lucid dreaming, set in Nepal, which has played across multiple oscar qualifying film festivals: Melbourne International Film Festival, La-Shorts, Busan International Short Film Festival, and winning the Jury Special Mention Award at the prestigious Oldenberg International Film Festival.
Back in his hometown in 2022, Kalani established ‘Mountain of Youth’, a filmmaking mentorship program for youth-at-risk, using storytelling and the filmmaking experience to bring change to the lives of young people. His new production ‘Soles’ (2022) is the product of this mentorship program.
Kalani works intuitively with both established and non-actors to create authentic and powerful experiences in film, often mixing fiction and non-fiction together in the same timeline to create that special magic which is only known to cinema.
Apart from filmmaking, Kalani also loves languages, trout fishing, freestyle rap, playing football and soul music.
