'Race for the Vaccine', Edited by Alumnus Shayon Maitra '17 Premieres on CNN

By
Felix Van Kann
June 01, 2021

Race for the Vaccine, a television documentary edited by alumnus Shayon Maitra '17, had its premiere on CNN on May 15. The film is currently available for streaming on demand via cable/satellite systems, CNNgo platforms, and CNN mobile apps.

Race for the Vaccine, narrated and produced by CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, follows five teams of scientists as they take a shot at saving the world. The film captures the scientists’ real-time reactions to study results, and their resistance to political urges to rush research decisions, during 12 months of intense filming on five continents.

Shayon Maitra is an experienced editor with an MFA in Screenwriting/Directing from Columbia University. He has worked at Ikana Health Action Labs and Sierra Tango Productions with Emmy-award winner Janet Tobias. He also edited several branded content pieces for top clients as well as the documentaries Heart of the Matter and Unmasked. The latter is a film about TB in South Africa and was televised across Africa on World TB Day. In addition, Maitra has edited several student films that have played at festivals such as Berlinale, SXSW, Palm Springs, Hollyshorts, FlickerFest Rhode Island, and OutFest, among others.

CNN Films produces and acquires documentary feature and short films for theatrical and festival exhibition and distribution across CNN’s multiple platforms. Acclaimed CNN Films include the Academy Award-nominated, BAFTA-nominated, and Emmy Award-winning RBG, directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen; the Emmy Award-winning Apollo 11, the giant screen film Apollo 11: First Steps Edition, directed by Todd Douglas Miller; Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President, directed by Mary Wharton; and the Emmy Award-nominated and BAFTA-nominated Three Identical Strangers, directed by Tim Wardle.