“By imbibing the deity’s pagan form, Manimekalai participates in the Indigenous tradition of being possessed by goddesses or spirits. Her performance critically revisits issues of LGBTIQ+ rights, refugee crises, genocidal history and Hindutva politics that she has engaged with in her earlier films” (Santasil Mallik in The Conversation).

Leena Manimekalai

Leena Manimekalai is a published poet and a self-taught filmmaker. She was a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) India Breakthrough Talent of the year 2022-23. Her award-winning films across genres and lengths have been screened across the world at about hundred prestigious international film festivals. Her work of cinéma vérité, Sengadal / The Deadsea (2011), on Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and Indian fishermen, won the NAWFF Award at Tokyo for the Best Asian Woman Cinema, and was recognized with the prestigious Indian Panorama selection after legally defeating the initial ban by the Indian Censor Board. One of her documentaries on gender justice, Goddesses (2008), has won her the Golden Conch at the Mumbai IFF and nominations for the Horizon Award in Munich and Asia Pacific Screen Award in Melbourne. White Van Stories (2013), a docu-feature on enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka that was shot entirely underground, was broadcast on BBC’s Channel 4 and won accolades at the Aljazeera IFF. Her mockumentary on transgender rights, Is it too much to ask (2015), was co-produced with NHK Japan and won the Best Documentary Award at the Singapore International Documentary Festival, and Jury Mention at Film South Asia, Nepal. Additionally, Leena has received the Charles Wallace Art Award, the EU Fellowship and the Commonwealth Fellowship for her work in Cinema and Gender. She has published six poetry collections and is completing a non-fiction feature, Rape Nation, that traces the lives and struggles of rape survivors across the Indian subcontinent. Wonder Women, a series she collaborated on as a line producer in India, won a Daytime Emmy for Best Travel and Adventure Program in 2017. Her second fiction feature is Maadathy, an unfairy tale (2019), about “invisiblised” dalit lives; it started its journey with a grand opening at the 24th Busan International Film Festival, followed by many festival selections and awards, including a FIPRESCI JURY AWARD. She recently graduated with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Film from the York University, Toronto. In 2023, she was an Artist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto.