Based in Houston, Texas, Tenley E. Raj is a multi-disciplinary filmmaker whose work explores the jagged intersections of identity and motherhood. After years spent as a writer and painter, Tenley pivoted to cinema, discovering that the lens offered a more visceral canvas for her storytelling. In 2023, she made a striking debut with Before the Freeze, a haunting six-minute psychodrama that she wrote, directed, shot, and edited. The film serves as an unflinching exploration of parental anxiety and the seductive, often dangerous, pull of escapism. Following the success of her debut, Tenley has finished her most ambitious project yet: After the Freeze, an expanded psychodrama that deconstructs the ghosts of first love and the high cost of nostalgia.
