I Am Sirat is a personal, vulnerable autobiographic documentary by Sirat Taneja about her experience as a transwoman in India, where she lives a dual life. Collaborating with acclaimed filmmaker Deepa Mehta, Sirat shot the film with her smartphone (taking advantage of her own experience building a platform on Instagram), capturing the real portrait of herself literally and metaphorically. While supported by a queer network of friends in Delhi and on Instagram, Sirat reverts to the closet at home. Living with and caring for her widowed mother, Sirat is forced to maintain the familial and cultural duties and responsibilities a son would traditionally provide, since her mother doesn’t understand or accept Sirat’s true self. As Sirat seeks to reshape her life and be true to herself while fulfilling her mother’s obligations, the film explores the larger social implications of queer identity and acceptance in India. An empowering portrait of a transwoman wrestling with cultural limitations while sharing her story with the world.
September 29: Q&A with co-director Deepa Mehta
Supported by
Community Partner
Canada
2023
Showcase
In Punjabi with English subtitles
Sexual Discrimination
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Dilip Mehta
Producer
David Hamilton
Cinematography
Deepa Mehta
Editor
Kabir Singh Chowdhry
Production Design
Maithili Venkataraman
A Collaboration Between
Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker whose emotionally resonating work is known to be provoking and challenging. Her films have played major film festivals around the globe and been distributed in over 75 countries. Her films include The Elemental Trilogy: Fire, Earth and the Oscar nominated Water, Bollywood/Hollywood, Heaven on Earth, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, Beeba Boys, Anatomy of Violence, and recently Funny Boy, which won Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score at the Canadian Screen Awards. Deepa has directed numerous TV episodes that include Netflix’s Leila, Apple TV’s Little America and Showtime’s Yellowjackets.
Filmography: Fire (1996); Earth (1998); Water (2005); Heaven on Earth (2008); Midnight’s Children (2012)
Sirat Taneja
Sirat Taneja a transgender woman who lives in New Delhi, India. She works in the Accounts Department at the Ministry of Social Defence. Previously, she worked at Love Life Society, an NGO working with people living with HIV or AIDS and Sexual Minorities on the issues of HIV/AIDS.
You Might Also Like
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Late Fame
Based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler (Eyes Wide Shut) this is a sly, poignant comedy about vanity and art from director Kent Jones, starring Willem Dafoe as a mailman belatedly acclaimed for a book of poetry he wrote in his youth.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
In 2093, a filmmaker arrives in the African village of Umata, where he meets Princess Mumbi, a woman torn between love, legacy, and the future of storytelling. It's a fabulous genre-blending fable about memory, invention and cinematic resistance.
Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Beau Travail
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claire Denis' transfixing Beau Travail is set in East Africa. Sgt Galoup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his time in the French Foreign Legion, and the impact of the handsome Sentain (Gregoire Colin).
But I'm a Cheerleader
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.