Uploaded October 2011 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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6ft in 7min is a short dark comedy about Rajeev Reddi, an East Indian guy, who has always has been surrounded by death. Today, on Rajeev's 18th birthday, his parents will finally tell him why.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
I wanted to make a film that most people could relate to. I think the common factor in this film is the culture clash between this new generation's views versus that of their parents'- then I took it to an extreme. A lot of people ask why a Latino director would use an all East-Indian cast. Why not? I write whatever characters a story calls for.

DIRECTOR'S BIO
Writer/Director, Rafael Del Toro, began his writing and filmmaking career at UC Berkeley, where he received Berkeley's highest award for film, the Eisner Award for his film, Maris. Rafael continued his studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film Program, as a Dean's Fellow, where he received a regional Student Academy Award (The Playroom), a Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker's Award (Must Be Love), a nomination for the DGA's Best Latino Student Director, and a Sloan Foundation Production Grant. His thesis, a dark comedy film called 6ft. in 7min., was a Wasserman Finalist, screened at 47 film festivals world-wide, and won 14 awards. Rafael has spent 6 years at KNBC & Telemundo, producing, writing, directing, shooting and editing promos and commercials. In 2008, Rafael was selected as a Film Independent Project Involve Fellow, and was accepted into Film Independent's Director's Lab, where he workshopped his feature script, Mullet. That same year, the script won the Richard Vague/ Chris Columbus Award, providing pre-production funds for the film. In 2009, after winning Best Film and Best Director at the Comedy Short Cuts Film Festival, Rafael was given a script deal by NBC Studios to write his first comedy TV pilot, Eat Sleep, Gas. Most recently he received an Emmy for his work on the show, "Locally Green" and an Imagen Award for his work on, "Brown is the New Green." Rafael's upcoming projects include directing his first feature script, Mullet, and writing his next TV project, Loco News.

Contact or Follow:
facebook.com/PunchingRobot

Twitter:
twitter.com/thedeltoro

FILM FESTIVALS
First Run Film Festival
San Diego Latino International Film Festival
Cinequest
San Francisco Asian American International Film Festival
River to River Film Festival
Starz Denver International Film Festival
Hawaii International Film Festival
Festival de Cine Internacional de Barcelona
San Diego Film Festival
Bruxelles International Film Festival
Festival Internacional de Cine Las Garzas
Festival Internacional de Cine de Monterrey
Edinburgh International Film Festival
HypeFest
Bollywood and Beyond Film Festival
Pris De Courts

CAST
(in order of appearance)
Young Rajeev - Yousef Gaffary
Mother - Naheed Khan
Father - R. N. Rao
Rajeev - Rajiv Surendra
Grandfather - Mohammed Chaudhry
Coroner 1 - Richard Holland
Coroner 2 - Joe Glass

CREW
Producers: Graciela Del Toro & Rafael Del Toro
Director: Rafael Del Toro
Original Screenplay: Rafael Del Toro
Director of Photography: Brain Burgoyne
Editor: Peter Widland


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Tags:
6ftin7mins, "Rafael del Toro", "Rajiv Surendra", "National Film Society", "student film", "short film", Latino, movie, Indian, comedy, family, parents, drama, NYU, independent