the rainbow archives 🌈

~ a comprehensive collection and celebration of queer pakistani media

[therainbowarchives]

welcome to the rainbow archives!

please click through the following to navigate the website

♡ the archive 📂

♡ about us 💫

♡ our instagram 📸

♡ get in touch 💌

♡ submission form 📄

[therainbowarchives]

happy marriage

type: film, short film

creator/s: sana jafri

date of release: march 25, 2021

synopsis:

a headstrong transgender woman encourages her long-term boyfriend to get married to a woman of his family's choosing as his masculinity is under question by his friends and family. at the day of the wedding ceremony, she dresses up for the event while he asks her to fulfill her promise of dancing at his wedding reception.

☆ i'm not sure if it's right to have this dance with you...

☆ the producer and protagonist of 'joyland' reunite to present a sincere yet deeply painful work.

availability:

available to watch for free at gagaoolala.

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

ray of light (kiran)

type: film, short film

creator/s: fatimah sattar

date of release: december 31, 2020

synopsis:

in between the mandalas and paisleys on the lines and pores of the bride-to-be's palms, a mehndi applicator finds a space for herself.

☆ i hide myself in the palm of your hand.

availability:

available to watch for free at gagaoolala.

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

next scene

type: film, short film

creator/s: sunil shanker

date of release: december 31, 2020

synopsis:

a struggling actor, an actress and a director find themselves in a bizarre situation as their real lives blend into the struggles of their characters through a story that they are trying to tell.

☆ if you can't tell the truth, then act it out! 

availability:

available to watch for free at gagaoolala.

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

us paar (beyond)

also known as ‘on the other side’

type: film, short film

creator/s: awais gohar

date of release: november 25, 2020

synopsis:

in a prison cell, a prisoner is awaiting his death penalty when he gets a parcel from his mother. upon receiving the parcel the prisoner asks the guard whether they are accepting his last request.

☆ what is his last wish?

availability:

available to watch for free at gagaoolala.

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

the world that belongs to us: an anthology of queer poetry from south asia

type: poetry, book

creator/s: aditi angiras, akhil katyal

date of release: september 22, 2020

synopsis:

‘a bold and necessary correction to the subcontinent’s poetry canon.’

—jeet thayil

this first-of-its-kind anthology brings together the best of contemporary queer poetry from south asia, both from the subcontinent and its many diasporas.the anthology features well-known voices like hoshang merchant, ruth vanita, suniti namjoshi, kazim ali, rajiv mohabir as well as a host of new poets.

the themes range from desire and loneliness, sexual intimacy and struggles, caste and language, activism both on the streets and in the homes, the role of family both given and chosen, and heartbreaks and heartjoins.

writing from bangalore, baroda, benares, boston, chennai, colombo, dhaka, delhi, dublin, karachi, kathmandu, lahore, london, new york city, and writing in languages including bengali, gujarati, hindi, kannada, urdu, manipuri, malayalam, marathi, punjabi, tamil, and, of course, english, the result is an urgent, imaginative and beautiful testament to the diversity, politics, aesthetics and ethics of queer life in south asia today.

availability:

distributed internationally.

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

brown girls

type: web series, tv show

creator/s: fatimah asghar, sam bailey

date of release: february 15, 2017

synopsis:

two women of color, leila and patricia, a queer pakistani-american writer and an african-american musician respectively, lean on each other to get through the difficulties of their mid-twenties.

availability:

available to watch for free at the official website here.

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

mujra

type: film, music video

creator: saadat munir

date of release: december 31, 2015

synopsis:

mujra, is an experimental video that tries to reflect the unique art form of mujra that the lahori khawja seras are known for. the videos were shot during the process of making a documentary. the core idea of this video is to express a narrative of performing arts that is not valued as art form but somehow help this community for their survival as being one of the very few options of earning.

availability:

available to watch for free at gagaoolala.

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

tum hi ho (lgbt cover aashiqui 2)

type: song, music video

creator: asifa lahore

date of release: march 26, 2014

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

transgenders: pakistan's open secret

type: documentary, film

director: sharmeen obaid-chinoy

date of release: december 13, 2011

summary:

many among pakistan’s transgender community scrape a living through dancing, singing and begging on the streets of karachi. others earn money catering for the sexual needs of men in the city’s seedier districts.

this film follows the stories of three transgender people, each of whom represents a different way of life in the country. maggie is a prostitute who dreams of becoming an airhostess, while chahat was abandoned to the streets by her middle-class family for her feminine ways. sana is karachi’s most sought-after transgender dancer, who wants to give up the profession after a particularly gruesome gang rape.

the film chronicles around their lives and as they fight their fate. can sana get one of those jobs? will chahat ever escape the desperate poverty she faces on a daily basis? and will maggie fulfill her dream to fly away?

availability:

available at various youtube channels with different names (e.g. here, here, here)

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

moorat (eunuch’s wedding)

type: tv show

creator/s: kamran qureshi, seema ghazal

date of release: aug 2, 2004

synopsis:

the story of a boy who was always snubbed and beaten by his brother and father and tried finding love outside the home.

eunuch's wedding dubbed as a taboo subject of 'eunuchs' who suffer endlessly in silence wrapped in slurs and miseries. a sensitive story that unfolds their deprived and isolated world and yet portrays eloquently how they too are not far away from the human emotions and feelings and their world not much different to ours.

availability:

not currently streaming anywhere, available for free on dailymotion.

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

myrmecophile

type: poetry

author: ifitkhar ‘ifti’ nasim

date of release: dec 1, 2000

synopsis:

the transition of a homosexual immigrant from a pakistani poet into an all-american gay writer, activist and how his poems depict his agony of the love that dare not to speak its name. finally, when his soul is free from all internal and external pressure of tradition and religious hypocrisy how he express himself in the poetry about his gay longings and desires. provocative, funny, and inspiring. it will make you cry and laugh at the same time.

availability:

distributed internationally.

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

narman

type: poem

author: iftikhar ‘ifti’ nasim

date of release: jan 1, 1994

synopsis:

iftikhar naseem ‘ifti’ was born on 15 sep 1946 in lyallpur, pakistan and later moved to the u.s. he committed his life to writing, and has published and performed poetry in english, urdu and punjabi all over the world. narman is one of his most renowned books (‘narman’ means hermaphrodite or ‘half-man, half-woman’ in persian)-a poetry collection that was the first open expression of homosexual themes in the urdu language.

availability:

available at rekhta.

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

my beautiful laundrette & other writings

type: book

author: hanif kureishi

date of release: january 1, 1996

synopsis:

whitbread prize winner kureshi is one of a new generation of british writers whose experience is refracted through his pakistani heritage. these collected screenplays and essays also include 'my son the fanatic'.

availability:

internationally distributed, available at readings and to borrow at the internet archive.

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

my beautiful laundrette

type: film

director: stephen friers

date of release: september 7th, 1985

synopsis:

a pakistani briton renovates a rundown laundrette with his male lover while dealing with drama within his family, the local pakistani community, and a persistent mob of skinheads.

availability:

available at the internet archive.

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

poshida: hidden lgbt pakistan

type: documentary

creator: faizan fiaz

date of release: 2015

synopsis:

a 2015 pakistani and british documentary about the lgbt community in pakistan. created by faizan fiaz and others, the 25-minute documentary explores the lives of a group of lgbt pakistanis. it was described by the daily pakistan as the first ever movie on the topic.

availability:

not currently streaming anywhere, unfortunately

pins:

[therainbowarchives]

bol

type: film

creator: shoaib mansoor

date of release: june 24, 2011

synopsis:

if taking a life is a crime, why is giving a life not a crime? the patriarch of a religious muslim family refuses to accept his intersex child, tearing his family apart.

availability:

streaming internationally on prime, apple tv, eros now etc.

pins: