“Tribeny Rai’s ‘Shape of Momo’ to Open Indie Meme Film Festival, Vaishali Sinha’s ‘Give It a Shot’ to Close (EXCLUSIVE)”
“Director of “Give It A Shot” talks premiere in Montana | Big Sky Documentary Film Festival”
“Among the world premieres..Give It A Shot, Vaishali Sinha’s study of a new male contraceptive being developed in India and the U.S.”
About the Film
A global race to develop a new male contraceptive that could revolutionize family planning and improve women’s lives globally.
Give It A Shot follows the indomitable 83-year-old Dr. Sujoy Guha in India, the California-based team of Elaine Lissner and L.R. Fox, as well as Kevin Eisenfrats in Virginia, on a quest to successfully launch the first reversible male contraceptive since the modern condom, invented 200 years ago.
It is a funny, moving and ultimately urgent film. This film is a timely, intimate and character driven story of the quest to successfully launch the next reversible birth control for men. According to the Guttmacher Institute, there are currently only three methods for men — condoms, vasectomy, and the “pull out” method — compared with at least 15 options for women. This advancement could revolutionize family planning and profoundly impact gender equity.
Give It A Shot provides a window into this high-stakes scientific and social experiment, from the roster of scientists and developers to the implications on society at large. The film also considers why a change has been so long in coming when innovation in male contraception has the potential to reframe men’s responsibility around family planning.
SCREENINGS | FESTIVALS
| World Premiere Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 at 8:00 PM |
| Give It A Shot is headed to Austin this month. The premiere will feature an in person Q&A with director/producer Vaishali Sinha. Sunday, April 26, 2026 at 7:00:00 PM (AFS Cinema) |
| We’re thrilled to announce that Give It A Shot is making its Bay Area premiere at DocLands Film Festival 2026 in the Art of Impact strand! The premiere will be followed by a post-screening conversation with the film team including director/producer Vaishali Sinha and impact producer Jaime Gher. Saturday, May 2, 2026 at 3:30 PM (Rafael 2, DocLands Film Festival) |
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BIOS
Vaishali Sinha (Director/Producer) is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and director of the feature documentaries Made in India (PBS) and Ask the Sexpert (PBS, Netflix). Her work has earned numerous honors, including the Critics Choice Award in India, a Grierson nomination for Best Entertaining Film, and a Ridenhour Peace Prize nomination for Excellence in Truth-Telling. Made in India became a case study at Harvard Business School in a course on ethics, while Ask the Sexpert achieved wide distribution across major platforms, including Netflix India. Vaishali was also a development consultant for the Academy Award–winning short documentary Period. End. Of. Sentence. and is currently on the producing team for multiple projects. She is a Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center and co-founder of Bitchitra Collective: Indian Women in Documentary, a peer-driven support network. She has mentored emerging filmmakers at Firelight Media Doc Lab, Kartemquin Film’s Diverse Voices in Docs, BAVC, and the Video Consortium. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and a diploma in 16mm film production from The New School, New York. Vaishali lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their child
Hemang Chheda (Producer) is a Mumbai-based, sought-after creative producer with nearly two decades of experience across advertising and long-form storytelling. Over the years, he has produced more than 350 television commercials, working closely with some of India’s most respected directors, agencies, and creative teams. He is best known for producing P&G Whisper’s Touch the Pickle, a widely celebrated gender-equality campaign that won the Glass Lions Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. His long-form work includes Class, Netflix India’s young-adult drama series. He has collaborated with filmmakers such as Shimit Amin and Ashim Ahluwalia. His work spans advertising and long-form formats, with a focus on strong storytelling, careful execution, and socially relevant themes.
Lara Heintz (Co Producer) is an award winning documentary producer, director, and journalist based in New York by way of Ohio and Colombia. She’s known for immersive, character driven stories with a particular focus on shedding light on issues around immigration and healthcare. Lara started her career at Vice Media, contributing work to Motherboard, the Emmy-Award winning series Vice News Tonight, and the Peabody award winning series Transnational. Most recently she worked on “We Are Ayenda”, a critically acclaimed branded documentary about the Afghan Youth National Football Team which won the Grand Prix in Entertainment at the 2024 Cannes Lions, and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Tracie Holder (Co Producer) is a filmmaker, producer and film funding specialist. She leads workshops, tutors and serves on juries at international pitching and training sessions. Holder is widely regarded as a “go-to” person for filmmakers seeking U.S. funding having raised more than $3 million for her own projects. Clients include: IDFA, CPH Dox, Sheffield Doc Fest, Doc Lab Poland, DocuDays, Docs Lisboa, Ramallah Docs, Firelight Media, DOC NYC, Chicken & Egg, and Unions Docs, among others. Holder was a longtime consultant to Women Make Movies, Development/Funding Strategist for Abby Disney’s Fork Films and former board member of NY Women in Film. She co-directed/produced Joe Papp in Five Acts, (Tribeca Film Festival, PBS/American Masters). Producing credits include Grit, (Hot Docs, PBS/POV), Small Town Universe (Cleveland Film Festival, PBS/Reel South) and Give It a Shot. Holder is an industry envoy on behalf of the American Film Showcase, a program of international cultural diplomacy.
Carrie Lozano (Executive Producer) is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist and media executive. Prior to ITVS, she was director of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film and Artist Programs, launched and directed the International Documentary Association’s Enterprise Documentary Fund, and was a documentary executive at Al Jazeera America and senior producer of the Award-winning investigative series “Fault Lines.” In addition to serving on ProPublica’s board of directors, Lozano serves on the advisory boards of U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and PBS FRONTLINE, and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Lois Vossen (Executive Producer) is the founding executive producer of Independent Lens on PBS since 2002. She leads the programming of a diverse slate of 25-30 original documentaries, made by independent filmmakers, with each season covering an array of social, political, and cultural issues, showcasing Independent Lens as an evolving multiplatform series. Under her leadership, Independent Lens has become synonymous with high-quality, award-winning documentaries on timely topics including Philly DA, Belly of the Beast, I Am Not Your Negro, Tower, and The Invisible War. Awarded Best Series by the International Documentary Association (IDA) five times, Independent Lens is recognized with the industry’s most prestigious honors, including 10 Academy Award nominations and more than 70 Peabody, Emmy and duPont-Columbia Award wins.
Jessica Harrop (Executive Producer) is Executive Director of Sandbox Films and an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary producer who has dedicated her career to inspiring passion about science through film. In her role at Sandbox Films she oversees all project decisions and company strategy and acts as an executive producer across Sandbox Films’ documentary slate — including Oscar-nominated Fire of Love; Sundance Special Jury-Prize winning All Light, Everywhere; Emmy-winning Fathom; and Fireball, a documentary directed by Werner Herzog. Jessica has produced content for a variety of outlets including Netflix, Showtime, Discovery, National Geographic, and PBS. As an establishing partner of Sandbox Films, Jessica’s passion for science storytelling shines through in each project she produces. She holds a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a Certificate in Theater from Princeton University, where she also co-taught an undergraduate film course on communicating climate change. Jessica is a member of both PGA and WGA and she serves on the board of Reel Works Teen Filmmaking.
Caitlin Mae Burke (Executive Producer) is an Emmy-winning producer and Oscar-shortlisted executive producer, who brings over fifteen years of producing experience to her work supporting and expanding the Sandbox Films slate as Head of Production and Development. Caitlin’s work has been broadcast and screened in movie theaters internationally, recognized with Emmy, Grand Clio, and Gotham Awards, and nominated for Critic’s Choice, Independent Spirit, and Cinema Eye Honors, as well as numerous “Best of festival” designations. In their prior role as Co-Director of IF/Then Shorts at Field of Vision, they oversaw 117 short documentaries from development to distribution as a supervising or executive producer, including 2024 Oscar-shortlisted Between Earth and Sky. Caitlin is an inaugural inductee into DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 and alumna of Berlinale Talents, and serves as on the advisory board of The Redford Center and as a member of the Television Academy’s Documentary branch.
Nish Acharya (Co Executive Producer) leads Equal Innovation, a leading global organization focused on transformative change and impact through innovation and entrepreneurship. Equal Innovation is one of the largest intermediary organizations for impact-organizations to connect with policy makers, funders and corporations. Mr. Acharya was also a Senior Fellow with the Clinton Foundation, a contributor to Forbes and Author of, “The India-US Partnership: $1 Trillion By 2030” by Oxford University Press. Nish previously served as Director of Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce for the Obama Administration, and as Executive Director of the Deshpande Foundation, a prominent American philanthropy focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, as a Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress, and also served in the Administration of President Bill Clinton. He has been quoted prominently worldwide in the New York Times, Economist, Newsweek, Economic Times, India Today, BBC, Bloomberg and NDTV.
Jun Stinson Yamagishi (Supervising Producer) is a Supervising Producer at ITVS where she oversees a slate of multiplatform documentaries for public media. She has a track record of producing nuanced and high-impact documentaries and series for streaming, broadcast, and social media. Her past work can be seen on Showtime, Netflix, and The New Yorker, amongst others. Jun helped launch AJ+, where she produced the award-winning series Untold America and Direct From. She also independently directed and produced the documentary Futbolistas 4 Life. Projects she’s worked on have garnered an Edward R. Murrow and Sports Emmy award, as well as multiple Regional Emmy awards.
Tithi Dutta Roy (Science Advisor) Tithi Dutta Roy is a biomaterials research based Senior Evidence Evaluation Specialist. She was most recently inducted into The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). AIMBE Fellows include 3 Nobel Prize laureates, 18 Fellows having received the Presidential Medal of Science and/or Technology and Innovation, and 195 also inducted to the National Academy of Engineering.
Jaime Gher (Impact Producer) is a human rights lawyer who works to advance the rights of women, girls, gender-diverse individuals, and marginalized and criminalized populations worldwide. For over two decades, she has engaged in international human rights research, litigation and advocacy experience working within the United Nations, international and national NGOs, including the Global Justice Center, Amnesty International, Center for Reproductive Rights, and Crea. Jaime also consults with companies and organizations around workplace “best practices”, leads institutional policy development, provides training around equality and non-discrimination, ableism and accessibility, and inclusion. She also founded and leads the Family Advocates – a fertility law and estate planning law firm that supports individuals and couples to create and protect their families and promotes equal access to fertility care for all.
Sanjana Gaind (Impact Producer) designed, led and implemented comprehensive programs on sexual and reproductive health and rights in rural and urban areas of India. As a trainer on gender, sexuality and rights she has co-trained activists, practitioners and girls and women from South Asia and Africa. Passionate about arts, films, politics and activism and with her background in feminist intersectional practice. She is currently based in Goa, India and works as Director of Advocacy & Strategic Partnership at Women’s Fund Asia.
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