Alfreda’s Cinema presents Shades of Feeling: Five by Pratibha Parmar

Guest programmed by Toronto-based critic and curator Saffron Maeve.

From the 80s into the 90s, British filmmaker Pratibha Parmar established a body of short films and video poems dealing intimately with ethnic and sexual expressivity in a blinkered UK. Carving out a queer South Asian imaginary, Parmar’s films prioritize pleasure (khush) and thematize lesbian chat rooms, the infiltration of colonial architecture, desire and diaspora, and the writings of Indian lesbian poet Suniti Bamjoshi. Parmar’s spatially engaged strategies of revolt are both protective and generous, clarifying the importance of anti-colonial perspectives on queerness.

Programmer Saffron Maeve joins Alfreda’s Cinema founder/curator Melissa Lyde in conversation following the screening.

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Bhangra Jig (1990)
Dir. Pratibha Parmar
4min, Digital

A vibrant short film about how young Asian people in Scotland celebrate desire and take pride in themselves through dance and music.

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Flesh and Paper (1990)
Dir. Pratibha Parmar
26min, Digital

Parmar’s Flesh and Paper is a lyrical exploration of the sense and sensibilities of Indian lesbian poet and writer, Suniti Namjoshi. This moving and powerful portrait of a unique and brave woman weaves Namjoshi’s life and writings into a sensual tapestry.

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Khush (1991)
Dir. Pratibha Parmar
24min, Digital

Accentuated by beautifully lit dream sequences, dance segments, and a dazzlingly sensuous soundtrack, Parmar’s uplifting short doc conveys the exhilaration of a culturally rooted experience of sexuality.

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Sari Red (1988)
Dir. Pratibha Parmar
13min, Digital

Made in memory of Kalbinder Kaur Hayre, a young Indian woman killed in 1985 in a racist attack in England, Sari Red eloquently examines the effect of the ever-present threat of violence upon the lives of Asian women in both private and public spheres via a moving visual poem.

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Wavelengths (1991)
Dir. Pratibha Parmar
15min, Digital

Set across gay bars, dreams, and cyberspace, this film contemplates one woman’s search for emotionally safer sex, and explores the time-honored quest for love and human intimacy in the polished world of computers and the Internet.