About Orange Kite Productions

Orange Kite Productions is an award-winning independent film production company creating feminist, humanistic, and social-impact films with an international scope.

Led by filmmaking partners Atin Mehra and Mae Thornton Mehra, the company brings over 25 years of experience producing documentaries and narrative projects centered on marginalized communities, disability rights, and justice-driven storytelling.

With deep roots in South Asia and active production across India, Nepal, Canada, and the United States, Orange Kite Productions combines cinematic craft with cultural fluency, handling projects from development through production, post-production, and impact outreach.

Our Team

Black and white portrait of a person with long, curly hair, wearing large glasses and a collared shirt with a patterned design

Atin Mehra

Founder

Award-winning filmmaker Atin Mehra was born and raised in Varanasi, India and currently resides with his family in Los Angeles, CA. In 1999 Atin picked up his first camera and began taking photographs. Atin’s uncanny ability to connect with individuals from behind the lens eventually led him into filmmaking. His own struggles with abuse and discrimination in India drew him to stories of marginalized individuals and communities. Atin lived and worked in India until 2005, when he moved to the US with his wife and filmmaking partner, Mae Thornton Mehra. They have been producing social justice and impact driven films together for over 15 years at Orange Kite Productions. BEING MICHELLE (2022) is Atin’s directorial debut for which he is a 2022 Firelight Media Impact Campaign Fund & International Documentary Association Nonfiction Access Initiative Grantee.

A woman with long dark hair, wearing a sweater and earrings, looking at the camera against a plain background.

Mae Thornton Mehra

Founder

Mae Thornton Mehra has been producing social justice and impact driven films with her husband and filmmaker, Atin Mehra at Orange Kite Productions for over 15 years. She prides herself on openly creative collaborations between film participants and diverse production teams as she believes that impact begins within the filmmaking process itself. In 2020, Mae and Atin co-founded the nonprofit Thriving Roots Initiative to further their work of social impact documentary filmmaking. Mae is Producer on BEING MICHELLE (2022), a documentary film that is helping to change the way Deaf and Disabled people are treated in social and criminal justice systems in the US and globally.