Leena Manimekalai Explained

Fetchwikidata:ALL

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.[1] 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.[2] 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.[3]

Love Lost is about changing relationships in urban space. It is an experimental five-minute video poem from her anthology.

Connecting Lines, which she did soon after she changed her style of film-making from "activistic" to "artistic", is about student politics in India and Germany. The documentary weaves through the student lives of four protagonists, two each in India and Germany.

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.[4]

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.[5] A Hole in the Bucket was showcased at International Water Symposium, Stockholm, 2007. Goddesses follows the lives of three extraordinary women who go against norms to succeed in usually male-oriented careers: a fisherwoman, a gravedigger and a funeral singer and it won her the prestigious Golden Conch at the Mumbai International Film Festival, 2008.

Manimekalai has taken up a visual art fellowship with PSBT on Tamil Women Poetry and Desire through the ages of Sangam, Medieval and Modern periods. "My Mirror is the Door" is her visual quest into the Sangam Age Tamil Women Poetry in which she traces her roots as a modern Tamil poet. IAWRT (International Association of Women in Radio and Television) awarded her with a fellowship to make a video portrait "Still I Rise" on Dayamani Barla, the first Indigenous Adivasi woman journalist who turned into a dynamic political leader in Jharkhand. Her specialisation is on "Media and Conflict resolution" and she had been a European Union Scholar in art practice. She has Commonwealth Fellowship to her credits for "Woman in Cinema" and been a Charles Wallace Scholar with School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

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."[6]

Sengadal

See main article: Sengadal.

Manimekalai's first feature film Sengadal completed production in 2011. The film shows how the ethnic war in Sri Lanka affected the lives of fishermen in Dhanushkodi. The censor board initially refused clearance certificate to the film, stating that it made denigrating political remarks about the governments of Sri Lanka and India, and uses unparliamentary words. She had appealed to the Appellate Tribunal authorities and contested the case legally for several months and finally got it cleared by July 2011 without any cuts.

White Van Stories

See main article: White Van Stories. Manimekalai's White Van Stories is a 70-minute documentary feature on enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka inspired by voices of those in search of their loved ones. Leena has a fresh set of challenges at her hand. She is now trying to get across the documentary, shot undercover in parts evading the constant gaze of the military, to a global audience. Leena was inspired to work on the subject of enforced disappearances when she visited Sri Lanka for a literary festival (41st Ilakkiya Santhippu) in July, and stayed back to travel. The stories she heard of people searching for their loved ones, thousands of whom vanished in the last stage of war in 2009, moved her to make the film.[7]

Manimekalai filmed the historical protests of the families of the disappeared in Jaffna and Colombo who were asking for justice, truth and reparation, declaring "No Peace" until their loved ones return. And She followed seven women who shared their stories across the east, south and north provinces. Access was incredibly challenging. North of Sri Lanka is heavily militarised and this is a story that had been largely impenetrable to the media as enforced disappearances also include journalists who are considered even slightly critical of state and its policies. Ultimately the film had to be made under severe vigilance and intimidation by the Lankan military. On one occasion Leena was asked to leave the country and on another detained for hours of questioning at a check post where they confiscated her tapes and denied her permission to film.

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).[8]

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.[9] 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.[10]

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.[11] 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

Year Title Duration Category
2003 Mathamma 20 mins Documentary
2004 Parai 45 mins Documentary
2004 Break the Shackles 50 mins Documentary
2004 Love Lost 5 mins Video Poem
2005 Connecting Lines 35 minutes Documentary
2005 Altar 50 minutes Documentary
2006 Waves After Waves 60 minutes Documentary
2007 A Hole in the Bucket 30 minutes Documentary
2008 Goddesses 42 minutes Documentary
2011 Sengadal 100 minutes Feature Fiction
2012 My Mirror is the Door 52 minutes Video Poem
2012 Ballad of Resistance 42 MinutesVideo Portrait
2013 White Van Stories 70 minutes Documentary
2017 Is it too much to Ask 28 minutes Documentary
2021 Maadathy Feature film
2022 Kaali Documentary film

Actor

Year Title Role Director Length Category
2004 Chellamma Protagonist Sivakumar 90 mins Feature fiction
2005 Love Lost Protagonist Leena Manimekalai5 mins Video Poem
2004 The White Cat Female Protagonist Sivakumar 10 mins Short Fiction
2011 Sengadal the Dead Sea Female Protagonist Leena Manimekalai102 mins Feature Fiction

Publications

Poem collections

Year Original Title English Title
2003 Ottrailaiyena As a Lone Leaf
2009 Ulakin Azhakiya Muthal Penn The First Beautiful Woman in the World
2011 Parathaiyarul Raani Queen of Sluts
2012 Antharakanni
2016 Chichili

Awards and achievements

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".[13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]

See also

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Out of the morality race. The Hindu. 2002-08-22. 2018-04-25.
  2. News: Leena Manimekalai: Broke but not broken Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis. 2011-11-06. dna. 2018-04-25. en-US.
  3. Web site: Leena Manimekalai: From Rural to Global . 2023-08-05 . krishijagran.com . en.
  4. Web site: Konangal . 2013-08-01 . KONANGAL: 3rd August 2013; LEENA MANIMEKALI 's Mathamma & Goddesses . 2023-08-05 . KONANGAL.
  5. News: Life through Leena's lens. 2008-03-22. The Hindu. 2018-04-25. en-IN. 0971-751X.
  6. Web site: 'The Very Existence of CBFC Is An Insult To Our Sensibilities': Leena Manimekalai on Her Upcoming Un-fairy Tale 'Maadathy', #MeToo, Censors, Poetry And Politics . Krupa . Ge . 11 September 2019 . SilverScreen Indian . 24 August 2020 .
  7. News: Documenting stories of forced disappearances in Lanka . Chennai, India . The Hindu . Karthik . Subramanian . 19 October 2013.
  8. Web site: On Vidupattavai and the space that queer voices are claiming for themselves in Tamil literature - Firstpost. firstpost.com. 24 April 2018. 2018-04-25.
  9. News: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community seeks to increase support base . https://web.archive.org/web/20131006020742/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-29/madurai/32923211_1_transgender-community-kalki-subramaniam-lgbt . dead . 6 October 2013 . 29 July 2012 . . 16 August 2013.
  10. News: Leena Manimekalai is all set for a cause . https://web.archive.org/web/20140101224528/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-16/news-interviews/32255775_1_queer-film-film-festival-feature-film . dead . 1 January 2014 . 16 June 2012 . . 16 August 2013.
  11. Web site: Real queer stories on reel. Abinaya Kalyanasundaram. 27 July 2017. The New Indian Express. 25 August 2017.
  12. News: Twinterview: Leena Manimekalai. femina.in. 2018-04-25. en.
  13. News: Kali poster: India police lodge complaint against Leena Manimekalai . BBC News . 5 July 2022.
  14. News: Canada's Aga Khan museum apologises after row over Leena Manimekalai's Kaali . The News Minute . 6 July 2022 . en.
  15. News: Sur . Arnabjit . FIR against director Leena Manimekalai for depicting 'derogatory' image of Hindu deity . The Hindu. 5 July 2022 . en-IN.
  16. Web site: Kaali can't be destroyed: Filmmaker Leena Manimekalai as Twitter removes poster . 7 July 2022 .
  17. Web site: Post Kaali poster controversy, Leena Manimekalai isn't feeling safe; clarifies Goddess smoking scene . 7 July 2022 .
  18. Web site: Toronto filmmaker receives backlash, death threats over Hindu goddess poster .