Program 3
Saturday, August 30, 2003, 7:00 pm, $7
Behind the Wheel (60 mins)
Two films, a music video and a documentary, are based on the true-life stories of two women who buck tradition to live unconventional lives as they cross gender lines and drive trucks to bring home the stuff that feminist and lesbian fables are made of.
Mann ke Manjeeré (Dir. Sujit Sarkar/India 2001/5:10 mins)
Winner of the Screen Awards 2001 in India and nominated for the MTV Awards for best Indipop music video category, Mann ke Manjeeré is the exuberant journey of a woman who leaves an abusive marriage and becomes a truck driver. Produced by Breakthrough, a feminist human rights organization that uses popular culture to promote social justice, the video raises important issues violence against women, women in non-traditional occupations and women’s access to public space.
Miss Manju Truck Driver (Manjuben Truck Driver) (Dir. Sherna Dastur/India 2002/52 min)
Miss Manju is a truck driver who defies gender stereotypes. She describes herself as half Shiva, half Shakti (man/woman) who ‘doesn’t need anybody else’s power’. This betel nut chewing, cross-dressing business woman, hangs out with the boys and comes home to a girlfriend and a family who call her ‘big Daddy’. You may say that ‘butch dyke’ is this woman’s middle name, but hold off on the labels. This beautifully shot observational documentary, filled with close-ups of busy Indian roads and night cafes, has been structured as a poetic story of an original trailblazer as well as the social landscape surrounding her.
Queer Filmistan 2003
Cinema has played a vital role in shaping queer identity in South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora. Queer Filmistan, the nations only queer South Asian international film festival, showcases film and video works by, for, about, or of interest to South Asian queer communities. It is devoted to exploring the diverse realities, deep complexities, joys and sorrows that make up the South Asian queer experience.
Queer Filmistan is a labor of love of Trikone, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people of South Asian descent. Founded in 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Trikone is the oldest group of its kind in the world.
Tickets can be purchased on-line upto 24 hours before each show at www.trikone.org and at the door 45 minutes before each show.
Queer Filmistan 2003 has been funded through a significant grant from the Horizons Foundation.