Documenting the Queer Indian: The Question of Queer Identification in Khush and Happy Hookers

Abstract

In 1991, Pratibha Parmar sent her film Khush to lesbian and gay film festivals around the world, screening it in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and more. Parmar was a part of a thriving community of queer video artists that included John Greyson, Marlon Riggs and others, who defined a generation of moving-image production in the queer community. In the years after the film’s 2006 completion, Ashish Sawhny sent his film, Happy Hookers, on a similar run of LGBT film festivals. Khush, through talking-head interviews and performative interludes, illuminates gay and lesbian identities and allegiances in South Asian diasporic communities. In Happy Hookers, we follow three male sex workers who have sex with men as they discuss, explain and live out their days on the screen.