Deepa Mehta and Sirat Taneja offer us an intimate window into trans life in India in their new film
Peter Knegt | CBC Arts | Posted: March 7, 2024 6:17 PM | Last Updated: March 7
Their collaborative documentary I Am Sirat was shot almost entirely on smartphones — and it's extraordinary
Here & Queer is an interview series hosted by Peter Knegt that celebrates and amplifies the work of LGBTQ artists through unfiltered conversations.
The new film I Am Sirat is a deeply authentic collaboration unlike any other. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Deepa Mehta and first-time documentarian Sirat Taneja worked together — largely shooting on smartphones — to offer us an unprecedented window into the trans life Taneja leads in India. And now their work is available to stream on CBC Gem.
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, which is where Mehta and Taneja stopped by the set of our newly Canadian Screen Award-nominated interview series Here & Queer. They opened up about their experience making the film, and what they both hope audiences take from it.
Watch the episode here:
Watch the episode here:
Mehta and Taneja met four years ago, when Taneja was acting in a pilot Mehta was shooting in New Delhi.
"She was performing as a transgender god," Mehta says. "It was a dystopian drama. I do extensive workshops before anything I do, so we spent one week together. And I really got to know Sirat and I became a fan."
"She was performing as a transgender god," Mehta says. "It was a dystopian drama. I do extensive workshops before anything I do, so we spent one week together. And I really got to know Sirat and I became a fan."
The two kept in touch, and four years later, Mehta was back in New Dehli and the two met up.
"We hung around my mother's house and she started telling me about what it felt like to be a hijra, which is a subsect of the transgender community in India, and why she left it," Mehta says. "And I said, 'let me write it down.' And she said, 'no, no, no, don't do that. Why don't you film me? Because otherwise you'll forget.'"
Mehta agreed, and two days later Taneja called her and said: "can you please make a film about me?"
Mehta asked Taneja why she wanted a film made about her.
"What she told me is that she wanted a film to be made so she could show it to her mother, and that her mother could see it and then realize that she is not different and that she's accepted by many people," Mehta says. "And that maybe through that venue her mother would understand and accept her. And she also wanted other people to see it, to see that transgender people are not different from anybody else."
As the film makes its way out into the world, Taneja says she hopes that when people see it they get a chance to breathe and to embrace themselves. As for her own experience:
"She feels like she is flying and that she's spreading her wings," Mehta translates for Taneja. "And that whatever she wishes for, she will acquire in her life. And what she wishes for is acceptance."
You can watch I Am Sirat on CBC Gem here.