Leena Manimekalai

Leena Manimekalai is an Indian filmmaker, poet and an actor. Her works include five published poetry anthologies and several films in genres, documentary, fiction and experimental poem films. She has been recognised with participation, mentions and best film awards in many international and national film festivals.

Films and activism

After a brief period as an assistant director with mainstream filmmakers and an intensive experience as a Television Producer and Anchor, she debuted in 2002 with the short documentary film Mathamma. The 20-minute-long docu-fiction is about devoting girl children to the deity, a practice prevalent among the Arundhatiyar community in Mangattucheri village near Arakkonam, Chennai. Her other films too deal with the issues of the marginalised. Parai is a film on violence against Dalit women. She went on the road with her films across hundreds of villages serving her videos a tool for participatory dialogue with the masses on compelling issues.

Break the Shackles is about the effects of globalisation on rural Tamil villages.

Waves After Waves explores how art rejuvenates the lives of children, devastated by the 2004 tsunami at the coastal villages of Tamil Nadu. Leena was inspired to do this project while she was serving as a volunteer in tsunami-hit regions of Tamil Nadu doing art therapy workshops for children. Altar is a documentary intervention on child marriage customs prevailing in the Kambalathu Naicker community in the central parts of Tamil Nadu. A Hole in the Bucket takes a look at the dynamics of water crisis in the city of Chennai in the context of families with different income levels.

Manimekalai has expressed opposition to censorship in Indian cinema: "CBFC is an archaic institution and it has to go. It is as simple as that. It is such a sore in the skin of democracy. I do not know when filmmakers will realise the very existence of CBFC is an insult to our sensibilities and collectively come together to bring it down. The 1952 Cinematograph Act has to be challenged if we think we are not stupid." Manimekalai's first feature film Sengadal completed production in 2011.

Manimekalai's White Van Stories is a 70-minute documentary feature on enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka.

Personal life

Manimekalai identifies as bisexual and came out in her second poetry collection, Ulagin Azhagiya Muthal Penn (The Most Beautiful First Woman in the World).

Support for LGBT and Pride march

Leena Manimekalai along with Anjali Gopalan supported the Asia's first Genderqueer Pride Parade organised by Gopi Shankar Madurai of Srishti Madurai in July 2012. Leena is the author of Antharakanni, the first poetry collection in Tamil on lesbian love. Springing from Tamil folklore, her twilight poems are enchanting with lesbian sensuality. Along with her poems, it has free hand translations of "balaclave" poems of Pussy Riot, the feminist punk band of Russia whose rioters are right now in prison on 'sedition' charges which adds a guerrilla status to the anthology. A Tamil version of openly bisexual Afro American poet June Jordan's cult verse 'About my rights' is another highlight of Antharakanni.

In 2016, she directed a documentary about the troubles faced by two transgender women while they look for a rental apartment in Chennai and the obstacles. It is titled "IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK?" and was first screened on 21 November 2016, and later many other film festivals all over the world.

Filmography

Director

Actor

Publications

Poem collections

Awards and achievements

2004: Retro – Ethnographic Montages, Chicago Women in Director's Chair International Film Festival
2004: Silver Trophy for the Best Documentary in Europe Movies Film Festival
2005: Best Actor and Best Experimental Video in Independent Art Film Festival
2005: Best Documentary in Paris and Norway Independent Diaspora Festivals
2005: European Union Fellowship for Conflict Resolution in Media
2005: Retrospective, International Democratic Socialist Youth Film Festival, Venezuela
2006: International Jury in Asian Film Festival, Malaysia
2007: Jury Award for Best Cinema of Resistance – John Abraham National Award
2008: Golden Conch for Best International Documentary in Mumbai International Film Festival
2008: Visiting Scholar Fellowship, Berlinale
2008: Nomination to Horizon Award, Munich International Film Festival
2008: Nomination – Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Brisbane
2008: One Billion Eyes National Award – Best Documentary
2008: Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan, Birds Eye View Film Festival, London
2008: Iyal Best Poetry Award from The Tamil Literary Garden for Ulakin Azhakiya Muthal Penn
2011: Sirpi Literary Award for the contribution to Tamil Poetry
2011: Indian Panorama Selections for Sengadal
2011: NAWFF Award for Best Asian Women Cinema (Tokyo) – Sengadal
2012: As Jury, International Women Film Festival, Seoul.
2013: Lenin Award from Thamizh Studio (instituted in the name of film editor B. Lenin) who highlights social issues.
2014: Srishti Tamil Lambda Literary Award for her book "Antharakanni" conferred by Bracha Ettinger and Anjali Gopalan Advisory Board of Srishti Madurai
2015: L’Oreal Paris Femina Women Awards 2015

Row over Kaali poster

Leena Manimekalai was on the receiving end of significant backlash and threats of violence after posting an image of the Hindu goddess Kaali as a poster for her documentary film Kaali on her twitter account. The image contained a picture of Manimekalai in costume as the goddess Kali smoking a cigarette with the rainbow gay pride flag. Canada’s Aga Khan Museum, where the film had been presented once on 2 July, issued a statement expressing regret that the tweet "inadvertently caused offence".

References

Sources

Abdul Latheef Naha (30 July 2006). "Giving voice to the voiceless". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 19 March 2008.
S. R. Ashok Kumar (2 November 2007). "Filled by poignant images". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 4 November 2007.
S. R. Ashok Kumar (14 April 2006). "With social change as goal". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 10 May 2006.
P. Oppili (22 September 2005). "A documentary on students and politics". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 7 December 2005.