Leena Manimekalai

Leena Manimekalai is an Indian filmmaker, poet and actor based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She has ten documentary films and a feature film to her credits. She has acted in several of her movies and has published four anthologies of poems. She is also a much acclaimed street theatre artist. Kanavupattarai is her publication house through which she has published 25 titles on world cinema and literature. Her production house named Touring Talkies has a stronghold in the television production in South India. She had published Thirai, an alternative monthly film journal.

Early life

Leena was born in a farmer's family in a village called Maharajapuram, near Madurai. Her father, Prof. Dr Raghupathy, was the first graduate from her family. He was a Tamil professor and made her the first woman professional in the family. Leena's mother is still a passionate farmer. She lost her father Prof.Dr. R. Raghupathy at a very early age and was brought up by her mother Rama. She attended Kamaraj University, where she obtained a graduate degree in engineering. Her grandfathers and uncles are all from a communist party background so Leena's passion towards social justice stems from her upbringing.[1]

Leena also has a brother, who is a television producer and her niece Aathira is the apple of Leena's eyes. Leena got married to her mentor Jerrold to get separated eventually and remain friends for life. Her journey of love continues though her whole attachment to the idea of marriage and role-playing has changed so that She would not test and try herself again.She openly declared herself as a queer women.Apart from film making, Leena is an ardent writer. She has four volumes of poetry to her credit. As a youth activist, Leena was more driven towards working in the streets.[2]

Film career

Leena Manimekalai is an independent Filmmaker, Poet and an Actor. Her works include three published poetry anthologies and a dozen films in genres, documentary, fiction and experimental poem films.

In her quest to contribute and raring to go, she has penetrated her land, state and nationwide, screening her films in more than thousand and odd forums and spaces.Women Movements, Mass Movements, Dalit Movements, Grassroot NGO's, Civil Rights Societies, Educational Institutions, Film Societies, Film Festivals etc. across the states have showed her films initiating a participatory dialogue and interventions.And she is able to relate across the line and cadre with humility and modesty having had the privilege of invitation screenings in international platforms and conferences across United States, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, South Africa, Kenya, Finland, Venezuela, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Belgrade etc..

She has been recognised with participation, mentions and best film awards in many international and national film festivals. After a brief period as an apprentice Director with mainstream filmmakers and an extensive experience as a Television Producer and Anchor, she debuted in 2001 with the short documenatary 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 is road with her films across thousands 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. 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. 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. 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. A Hole in the Bucket was showcased at International Water Symposium, Stockholm, 2007.

She has taken up a visual art fellowship with PSBT on Tamil Women Poetry and Desire through the ages of Sangam, Medieval and Modern periods. 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 Cinema and is currently a Charles Wallace Scholar with School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Sengadal (The Red Sea)

Main article: Sengadal

Leena's first feature film Sengadal completed production in 2011. The film shows how the ethnic war in Sri Lanka had affected the lives of fishermen in Dhanushkodi. The censor board has 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

Leena Manimekalai's White Van Stories a 2-hour 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.[3]

"The making of White Van Stories was not a scripted journey. It was rather mystical. Maybe my constant urge to tell stories that otherwise had been forgotten pointed me towards that direction."[4][5]

—Leena Manimekalai about her documentary White van stories on Channel 4

Leena 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.[6]

Support for LGBT and Genderqueer

Leena Manimekalai along with Anjali Gopalan supported the Asia's first Genderqueer Pride Parade organised by Gopi Shankar of Srishti Madurai on July 2012.[7] Leena is the author of Antharakanni the first poetry collection in Tamil on Lesbian love and it's a queer poetry collection. 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. Tamil version of Openly Bisexual Afro American Poet June Jordan's cult verse 'About my rights' is another highlight of Antharakanni.[8]

"We always have a notion that the metropolises are open to discuss about LGBT than the rural areas. But, it is a false notion. The rural and the tribal people find it easy to share us about the topics that are usually considered taboo by the urban people"[9]

— Leena Manimekalai on Alan Turing Rainbow Festival Organized by Srishti Madurai

Works

Filmography as 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 Documentary
2005 Altar Documentary
2006 Waves After Waves Documentary
2007 A Hole in the Bucket Documentary
2008 Goddesses Documentary
2011 Sengadal 100 minutes Feature Fiction
2013 White Van Stories 2-hour Documentary

Filmography as actor

Year Title Role Director Length Category
2004 Chellamma Protagonist Sivakumar 90 mins Feature fiction
2005 Love Lost Protagonist Leena Manimekalai 5 mins Video Poem
2004 The White Cat Female Protagonist Sivakumar 10 mins Short Fiction
2011 Sengadal the Dead Sea Female Protagonist Leena Manimekalai 102 mins Feature Fiction

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 –

Awards and achievements

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.deccanchronicle.com/131024/entertainment-kollywood/article/films-hunt-me-down-leena-manimekalai
  2. ↑ http://www.deccanchronicle.com/131024/entertainment-kollywood/article/films-hunt-me-down-leena-manimekalai
  3. ↑ Subramanian, Karthik (19 October 2013). "Documenting stories of forced disappearances in Lanka". The Hindu (Chennai, India).
  4. ↑ http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-white-vans-interview-leena-manimekalai-video
  5. ↑ http://www.channel4.com/news/white-van-stories-sri-lanka-disappeared-video
  6. ↑ http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-white-vans-interview-leena-manimekalai-video
  7. ↑ "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community seeks to increase support base – Times of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  8. ↑ "Leena Manimekalai is all set for a cause – Times of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 16 June 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  9. ↑ Karthikeyan, D. (30 July 2012). "The Hindu : NATIONAL TAMIL NADU : Madurai comes out of the closet". Chennai, India: thehindu.com. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  10. ↑ http://femina.in/women/women-like-you/twinterview-leena-manimekalai-3531.html

Other sources

External links

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