Closet Culture

“It was only when I moved from India to London for my graduation that I began to see myself as a woman of colour. After moving to New York three years later,I began to think of myself as part of the Indian diaspora. Until that point,I was an Indian woman who was queer,” says the 26-year-old filmmaker who was born in Delhi. She completed her post-graduation in Cinema Studies and Culture and Media at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in May 2009.

The 18-minute film will be screened on May 26 at the India Habitat Centre and will be followed by a panel discussion. In the film,Priyanka,an immigrant from India,is a proud “pan sexual” who shares stories of her relationships with her mother and friends. In sharp contrast,another Indian-origin woman referred to as ‘A,’ who was born and raised in New York,is unable to tell her parents. “I don’t want to make them unhappy,they are old and shouldn’t have their world shattered in their twilight years,” says the hooded figure of ‘A’ as she goes about making tea and shopping for Bollywood music in an upmarket store in New York.

“Indians born and brought up in America find it harder to come out since they are a lot more conservative,” says Priyanka as she smiles into the camera. Srivastava adds that the South Asian LGBT community in New York City functions as a third character within the film and is represented by the socio-political group SALGA NYC.

The film tracks different aspects of the issue through conversations with various individuals. There are images of the gay men and women grooving to Bollywood music on party nights but when Srivastava lingers on people gushing about “how SALGA changed my life”,the film loses some of its bite and becomes like a promotional video for SALGA.

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