Artist

Pratibha Parmar

Pratibha Parmar was born in Kenya and immigrated with her family to live in the UK. She currently divides her time between London and San Francisco. She spent many years behind the camera bringing fresh perspectives to stories of women, minorities and contemporary cultural and social issues. Her multiple, award-winning films have been exhibited widely at international film festivals and broadcast in many countries. Nina’s Heavenly Delights, her award-winning feature film debut, released theatrically in the UK and US in 2006-07.

Her 1991 film
A Place of Rage, about African-American women’s role in the civil rights movement, received international critical acclaim and was named Best Historical Documentary by the National Black Programming Consortium in the U.S. Her other documentary credits include The Righteous Babes, A Brimful of Asia, and the award-winning Khush.

In 1993, Parmar released her most challenging and inspirational film to date.
Warrior Marks, which documented female genital mutilation in Africa. This film came at a time when the subject was still taboo in the international community. The award-winning documentary was made in collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alice Walker. Parmar has directed music videos and is the co-author and editor of several books. In October 2007, she was awarded the Visionary Award for her body of work from the One in Ten Film Festival, and she is a past winner of the San Francisco Frameline Film Festival Life Time Achievement Award. As a filmmaker, Pratibha has a proven track record of bringing her excellent ability and vision and her commitment to bringing complex subjects into the mainstream media and changing the contours of popular discourse on race, feminism and creativity.

Artist Code: 050

Videography

Brimful of Asia

1998, 28:30 minutes, colour, English with sign language

The Righteous Babes

1998, 50:42 minutes, colour, English with sign language

Double The Trouble Twice The Fun

1992, 25:00 minutes, colour, English with sign language

Bhangra Jig

1990, 04:00 minutes, colour, English with sign language

Flesh & Paper

1990, 26:00 minutes, colour, English with sign language

Memory Pictures

1989, 24:00 minutes, colour, English

Sari Red

1988, 12:00 minutes, colour, English

Reframing AIDS

1987, 35:00 minutes, colour, English

Emergence

1986, 18:00 minutes, colour, English

Critical Writing

Mid-Life/Shelf-Life
by Lisa Steele. Mid-Life/Shelf-Life, 2010. Toronto: Vtape, 2010.
The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses
by Laura U. Marks. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2000.
Inside Out/Outside In?
by Andrew James Paterson. Fuse, Spring 1998, v. 21, no. 2.
Out on Screen
by Pat Feindel. Reverse Shot, Fall 1994.
Blasted Categories
by Ian Iqbal Rashid. Black Film Bulletin, 1994, v. 2, no. 3.
Sexual Hybrids: From Oriental Exotic to Postcolonial Grotesque
by Laura U. Marks. Parachute, Apr. 1993, no. 70.
Double the Trouble, Twice the Fun
by Shelley Tremain. Canadian Woman Studies, 1993, v. 13, no. 4.
Identity and Consciousness:: (Re)Presenting the Self
by Sheila Petty. Dunlop Art Gallery, 1991. Regina, SK: Dunlop Art Gallery, 1991.
Exhibition Program
by Sheila Petty. Identity and Consciousness: (Re)Presenting the Self, 1991. Regina: Dunlop Art Gallery, 1991.
Images 90
by Fran Gallagher-Shuebrook. C Magazine, 1991, no. 28.
Crises of Language and Difference
by Liz Kotz. Afterimage, Nov. 1989, v. 17, no. 4.
Video and the Vth International Conference on AIDS: Accessibility...
by Ken Morrison. Video Guide, Fall 1989, v. 10, no. 48.