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===Filmography as actor=== |
===Filmography as actor=== |
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Revision as of 16:55, 24 July 2011
Leena Manimekalai is an Indian academic-filmmaker, columnist, poet and actor based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She has nine short films and a feature film to her name. She has acted in several of her movies and has published three anthologies of poems. She is also a much acclaimed street theatre artist. Kanavupattarai is her media house through which she has published 20 titles on world cinema and literature. Her production house named Touring Talkies has units in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. She publishes Thirai, an alternative monthly film journal.
Early life
Leena was born in Maharajapura, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. She lost her father Prof. R. Raghunath at a very early age and was brought by her mother Rama. She attended Kamaraj University, where she obtained a graduate degree in engineering.
Film career
After training in the creative field under renowned film-makers like Bharathiraja, Cheran and C. Jerrold and gathering extensive experience as a television producer and anchor, she debuted in 2001 with the short 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 sufferings of the marginalized. Parai is a film on violence against Dalit women. She travelled in more than 250 villages to complete the film. 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, disrupted by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. Leena was inspired to do this project while she was serving as a volunteer in tsunami-hit regions of Tamil Nadu for more than an year. Altar is an ethnographic documentary 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 perennial water crisis in the city of Chennai in the context of families with different income levels.
Her first feature film Sengadal completed production in December 2010. The film shows how the ethnic war in Sri Lanka had affected the lives of fishermen in Dhanushkodi. The censor board has 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 has currently 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.
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 |
| 2005 | 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 | Godesses | 45 mins | Documentary |
| 2010 | Sengadal | Feature Fiction |
Filmography as actor
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Length | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Chellamma | Protagonist | Sivakumar | 90 mins | Feature fiction |
| 2005 | Love Lost | Protagonist | Herself | 5 mins | Video Poem |
| 2010 | The White Cat | Female Protagonist | Sivakumar | 10 mins | Short 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 |
| TBA | Parathaiyarul Raani | Queen of Sluts |
Awards and achievements
- 2004: Retro - Ethnographic Montages, Chicago Women in Director's Chair International Film Festival
- 2004: Silver Trophy for the Best Documentary in Europe Movies Film Festival
- 2005: Best Actor and Best Experimental Video in Independent Art Film Festival
- 2005: Best Documentary in Paris and Norway Independent Diaspora Festivals
- 2005: European Union Fellowship for Conflict Resolution in Media
- 2005: Retrospective, International Democratic Socialist Youth Film Festival, Venezuela
- 2006: International Jury in Asian Film Festival, Malaysia
- 2007: Jury Award for Best Cinema of Resistance - John Abraham National Award
- 2008: Golden Conch for Best International Documentary in Mumbai International Film Festival
- 2008: Visiting Scholor Fellowship, Berlinale
- 2008: Nomination to Horizon Award, Munich International Film Festival
- 2008: Nomination - Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Brisbane
- 2008: One Billion Eyes National Award - Best Documentary
- 2008: Commonwealth Fellowship, Birds Eye View Film Festival, London
- 2008: Iyal Best Poetry Prof. Maylivaaganan Award for Ulakin Azhakiya Muthal Penn
See also
References
- Abdul Latheef Naha (July 30, 2006). "Giving voice to the voiceless". The Hindu.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - S. R. Ashok Kumar (November 2, 2007). "Filled by poignant images". The Hindu.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - S. R. Ashok Kumar (April 14, 2006). "With social change as goal". The Hindu.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - P. Oppili (September 22, 2005). "A documentary on students and politics". The Hindu.
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