Pratibha Parmar

Pratibha Parmar is a British writer and filmmaker. She has made feminist documentaries such as Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth and My Name is Andrea about Andrea Dworkin.

Pratibha Parmar
Born
Nairobi, Kenya
Alma materUniversity of Bradford; University of Birmingham
Occupation(s)Writer and filmmaker
Notable workAlice Walker: Beauty in Truth (2014); My Name is Andrea (2022)
Websitepratibhaparmar.com

Early life

Parmar was born in Nairobi, Kenya, to Indian parents and when she was 12 her family moved to the United Kingdom.[1][2] She received a B.A. degree from Bradford University and attended Birmingham University for postgraduate studies. Parmar's feminism was influenced by writers such as Angela Davis, June Jordan, Cherrie Moraga, Barbara Smith and Alice Walker.[3]

Career

With her 1991 film Khush, Parmar examined the erotic world of South Asian lesbians and gay men in the United Kingdom and India, using a mix of documentary footage and dramatic scenes.[4]

The documentary Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth (2014) is about the life of author and activist Alice Walker, whom Parmar had first met in 1991 via June Jordan and Angela Davis. 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.[7]

In 2022, Parmar released her documentary My Name is Andrea about the second-wave feminist and writer Andrea Dworkin.[8]

Parmar has also made music videos for Morcheeba, Tori Amos and Midge Ure.

Awards and recognition

Parmar won the 1993 Frameline Award at the Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco and her films have won various prizes.[3] In 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.[9]

Selected works

Film

Writing
  • Pocket Sized Venus in Femmes of Power: Exploding Queer Femininities, Del LaGrace Volcano and Ulrika Dahl. Serpent's Tail, 2008.
  • Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women. Co-author with Alice Walker. Harcourt Brace in the U.S. and Jonathan Cape in the U.K, November 1993.
  • Queer Looks: An Anthology of Writings about Lesbian and Gay Media. Co-edited with Martha Gever & John Greyson. Routledge, New York & London, October 1993.
  • "Perverse Politics", in Feminist Review, No 34, 1991.
  • "Challenging Imperial Feminism with Valerie Amos", in Feminist Review (1984) and reprinted several times in various publications and anthologies including Feminism & Race. Oxford University Press, 2000.

See also

References
  1. "Pratibha Parmar". Pratibha Parmar. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  2. "Pratibha Parmar". kalifilms.com. Archived from the original on 31 May 2007. Retrieved 13 June 2007.
  3. "In Conversation With Pratibha Parmar". Lokvani. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  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, Aisha Shahidah (25 October 2011). "Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth – Ms. Magazine". msmagazine.com. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  6. Nichols, Peter M. (2008). "Movies: About Warrior Marks". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 15 March 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  7. McCoy, Frank (1994). "Hearing Women's Cries". Black Enterprise. Earl G. Graves, Ltd. p. 103.
  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. 21 November 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2019.

Further reading
  • Tyrkus, Michael (1997). Gay & Lesbian Biography. Detroit: St. James Press. pp. 355–357. ISBN 9781558622371. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  • Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Women Filmmakers of the African and Asian Diaspora. Southern Illinois University Press, 1997.
  • Looking For The Other. Feminism, Film and the Imperial Gaze. Chapter 6: "Can One Know the Other?” The Ambivalence of Postcolonialism in Chocolat, Warrior Marks, and Mississippi Masala." E. Ann Kaplan. Routledge, 1997.
  • Alpana Sharma Knippling, "Self (En)Gendered in Ideology: Pratibha Parmar's Bhangra Jig and Sari Red", in JPCS: Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture & Society, Volume 1 (No 2), Fall 1996.
  • Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors. Eds. Judith M. Redding & Victoria A. Brownworth. Seal Press, 1997.
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