Early Career
Pratibha Parmar began her filmmaking career working in documentary. Aesthetically, the reworking Parmar offered the film world of the definition of poetry in relationship to cinema marked her signature. Emergence (1986) and Sari Red (1988) both raised awareness about Black and Third World women’s artistic sensibility in regard to London city streets.
With Khush (1991), Parmar examined the erotic world of South Asian queers. Khush means ecstatic pleasure in Urdu. For South Asian lesbians and gay men in Britain, North America, and India, the term captures the blissful intricacies of being queer and of colour. Inspiring testimonies bridge geographical differences to locate shared experiences of isolation and exoticisation but also the unremitting joys and solidarity of being khush.
The release of A Place of Rage (1991), a documentary about African-American women’s role in the civil rights movement, marked a critical turning point in Parmar’s career. The film was named Best Historical Documentary by the National Black Programming Consortium in the U.S. and received broad international critical acclaim. Her other documentary credits include The Righteous Babes and A Brimful of Asia. Drama credits include Sita Gita, Wavelengths and Memsahib Rita.
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