Pratibha Parmar

Pratibha Parmar
Born	Nairobi, Kenya
Alma mater	University of Birmingham
Occupation(s)	Writer and filmmaker
Notable work	Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth (2014); My Name Is Andrea (2022)
Website	pratibhaparmar.com

Pratibha Parmar is a British writer and filmmaker. She makes feminist documentaries such as Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth (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. ^[1] She received a B.A. degree from Bradford University and attended Birmingham University for postgraduate education. ^[2] Parmar's feminism was influenced by writers such as Angela Davis, June Jordan, Cherríe Moraga, Barbara Smith, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, and Gloria Anzaldúa. ^[3]

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. ^[4]

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. ^[5] Walker and Parmar also collaborated on Warrior Marks, a documentary about female genital mutilation. ^{[5] [6]} They then released a book, also entitled Warrior Marks (1993). ^[7]

In 2022, Parmar released her documentary My Name is Andrea, about feminist writer Andrea Dworkin. ^[8]

Parmar has also made music videos for Morcheeba, Tori Amos, and Midge Ure.^{[ citation needed ]}

Awards and recognition

• 1993: Frameline Award ^[2]
• 1995: Trikone Pink Peacock Award ^[2]
• 2016: BBC's 100 Women ^[9]

Khush

• 1991: Frameline Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary Short ^[2]
• 1992: Créteil International Women's Film Festival Public Prize for Best Foreign Film ^[2]

Selected works

Film

• Khush (1991)
• A Place of Rage (1991)
• Nina's Heavenly Delights (2006)
• Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth (2014)
• My Name is Andrea (2022)

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

• List of female film and television directors
• List of lesbian filmmakers
• List of LGBTQ-related films directed by women

References

1. "Pratibha Parmar". Kali Films. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
2. Saigal, Ranjani (28 May 2007). "In Conversation With Pratibha Parmar". Lokvani. Archived from the original on 16 November 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
3. Parmar, Pratibha (18 February 2014). "Personal is Political: Audre Lorde: Sister Insider". The Feminist Wire. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
4. Kaplan, E. Ann (2012). Looking for the Other: Feminism, Film and the Imperial Gaze. Routledge. p. 283. ISBN   978-1-135-20875-2.
5. Simmons, Aishah Shahidah (25 October 2011). "Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth". Ms. Magazine. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
6. "Warrior Marks (1993)". Movies. The New York Times . 14 March 2008. Archived from the original on 15 March 2008.
7. McCoy, Frank (May 1994). "Hearing Women's Cries". Black Enterprise. Vol. 24, no. 10. Earl G. Graves, Ltd. p. 103. ISSN   0006-4165 . Retrieved 1 April 2025.
8. Linden, Sheri (11 June 2022). "'My Name Is Andrea': Film Review | Tribeca 2022". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
9. "BBC 100 Women 2016: Who is on the list?". BBC News. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 28 July 2019.

Further reading

• Tyrkus, Michael (1997). Gay & Lesbian Biography. Detroit: St. James Press. pp.  355–357. ISBN   9781558622371.
• 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

• Official website
• Pratibha Parmar at IMDb
• Pratibha Parmar at Women Make Movies
• Marjorie Baumgarten, "Two by Pratibha Parmar: A Place of Rage, Khush", The Austin Chronicle, 21 February 1992.
• Louise Carolin, "INTERVIEW/VIDEO: PRATIBHA PARMAR ON HER FILM ABOUT AMERICAN ICON ALICE WALKER", Diva, 19 March 2012.