THE RELEVANT QUEER: Pratibha Parmar, Filmmaker and Passionate Advocate for the Disenfranchised

“Films always must entertain. But the topics I choose for my films should be something I am passionate about. My art is part of my activism.”

TRQ: Pratibha Parmar, Born February 11, 1955

Filmmaker, writer and director Pratibha Parmar was born on February 11, 1955. Parmar is a feminist activist. Her film work is political and often controversial. Her documentary work brings attention to the humanitarian rights of the disenfranchised. Her lens advocates on behalf of women and the queer community. Tori Amos, Morcheeba and Alice Walker are among her collaborators.

Parmar was born in Nairobi, Kenya. After her working-class family migrated to London as part of the mass exodus from East Africa tagged as “East African Asians” by the British press. Parmar grew up particularly aware of her immigrant status. Her interest in social justice was profoundly influenced by witnessing the persecution of people based on their class, race, and sex.

For her undergraduate studies, Parmar attended Bradford University and earned a B.A. with honours in Human Purposes and Communications. She spent a year in India working with Mother Teresa and teaching village children to read.

She pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Contemporary Studies. During the 1980s, Parmar served as editor and publisher of Sheba Feminist Press, which published the poetry of Audre Lorde. In 1982, she joined Paul Gilroy, Valerie Amos, and others to publish The Empire Strikes Back — Race and Racism in the 1970s’ Britain. The book analyses race relations, a societal problem that creates, codifies and enforces racism.

Parmar first realized mass media’s power to change social perceptions of minorities while working as a Youth and Community Worker after graduation. To advance her filmmaking skills, she joined a Channel 4 documentary project on Black and Asian communities in the UK.

She released Emergence in 1986 and Sari Red in 1988, drawing attention to the artistic contributions made by Black and Third World women on the streets of London. In 1991 she released Khush, a documentary on the contradictory lives of South Asian queers that balance fetishisation and exoticisation, joy and solidarity.

The National Black Programming Consortium named Parmar’s documentary A Place of Rage (1991) as Best Historical Documentary for its look into the role of Black women in the U.S. civil rights movement.

In 1993 Parmar collaborated with Alice Walker on Warrior Marks, a documentary about female genital mutilation. That same year she also won the Frameline Award for her contribution to gay and lesbian media. In 1995 she served as the San Francisco Pride Parade’s Grand Marshal. In 1999, The New Festival paid tribute to Parmar.

“Films always must entertain. But the topics I choose for my films should be something I am passionate about. My art is part of my activism.”

— Pratibha Parmar

Nina’s Heavenly Delights, Parmar’s debut feature film, debuted in 2006. As she once explained, “The inspiration for the story came from my own experiences and in some ways its’ autobiographical. I wanted to write a love story where a young woman falls in love with another woman in a surprising way, when they least expect it. I wanted to set it in an Indian restaurant because my partner grew up in her family owned Pakistani restaurant in London and we had fallen in love when making a curry for a group of mutual friends. The title of the film actually comes from my sister, Nina who once owned a catering company called, Nina’s Heavenly Delights. So that’s how those different personal elements came together. Ultimately it’s a film about family, food and love, all themes that I am interested in.”

In 2001 Parmar created the production company Kali Films specialising in features, documentaries and music videos. In 2007 the One in Ten Film Festival awarded her the Visionary Award for her body of work. In 2016 BBC named her one of BBC’s 100 Women. She currently spends her time in Berkley, California and London with her partner Shaheen.

About the Authors

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore.

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Sources:

Kali Films

WMM

Pop Matters

Lokvani