Rejecting the Margins of Difference: Strategies of Resistance in the Documentary Films of Pratibha Parmar

Abstract

In both form and content the films of Pratibha Parmar have consistently broken with film tradition. Primarily a maker of documentaries, Parmar goes beyond conventional genre structuring in terms of employment of technique, and pushes beyond traditionally acceptable territories in her selection of subject material. She works to create a form of visual resistance to standard definitions and identifications of community, race, sexuality and feminism, and to promote a way of thinking about self and social relations that pushes beyond the boundaries of fear, nationalism and protectionism. Parmar does not work to bring individuals and communities considered marginalized, or excluded, into the center, or mainstream, of society and culture. Rather, through deliberately feminist, and non-traditionally artistic approaches to filmmaking, she works to bring the center, or mainstream, out to the margins. Her films project and discuss controversial cultural issues that cross boundaries of territory and identity, and draw together viewers from different sectors of society to create new communities of audience and to challenge their understanding of each other.