Pratibha Parmar is a British writer and filmmaker. She makes feminist documentaries such as ' (2014) and My Name Is Andrea (2022).
Early life and education
Parmar was born in Nairobi, Kenya, to Indian parents; when she was 11 years old her family moved to the United Kingdom. She received a B.A. degree from Bradford University and attended Birmingham University for postgraduate education. Parmar's feminism was influenced by writers such as Angela Davis, June Jordan, CherrÃÂe Moraga, Barbara Smith, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, and Gloria Anzaldúa.
Career
In her 1991 film Khush, Parmar examined the world of South Asian lesbians and gay men in the United Kingdom and India, using a mix of documentary footage and dramatized scenes.
The documentary Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth (2014) is about the life of author and activist Alice Walker, whom Parmar met in 1991 via June Jordan and Angela Davis. Walker and Parmar also collaborated on Warrior Marks, a documentary about female genital mutilation. They then released a book, also entitled Warrior Marks (1993).
In 2022, Parmar released her documentary My Name is Andrea, about feminist writer Andrea Dworkin.
Parmar has also made music videos for Morcheeba, Tori Amos, and Midge Ure.
Awards and recognition
Khush
Selected works
Film
Writing
- "Pocket Sized Venus" in Femmes of Power: Exploding Queer Femininities, Del LaGrace Volcano and Ulrika Dahl (eds.). Serpent's Tail, 2008.
- Warrior Marks, co-authored with Alice Walker. Harcourt/Jonathan Cape, November 1993.
- Queer Looks: An Anthology of Writings about Lesbian and Gay Media, co-edited with Martha Gever & John Greyson. Routledge, October 1993.
- "Perverse Politics", in Feminist Review No. 34, 1991.
- "Challenging Imperial Feminism with Valerie Amos", in Feminist Review, 1984. Reprinted in Feminism & Race, Oxford University Press, 2000.
See also
References
Further reading
- Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey (1997). Women Filmmakers of the African and Asian Diaspora. Southern Illinois University Press.
- Kaplan, E. Ann (1997). "'Can One Know the Other?' The Ambivalence of Postcolonialism in Chocolat, Warrior Marks, and Mississippi Masala" in Looking For The Other: Feminism, Film and the Imperial Gaze. Routledge.
- Knippling, Alpana Sharma (Fall 1996). "Self (En)Gendered in Ideology: Pratibha Parmar's Bhangra Jig and Sari Red" in JPCS: Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture & Society Vol. 1, No. 2.
- Redding, Judith M. & Victoria A. Brownworth (eds.) (1997). Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors. Seal Press.
External links