"Hide and Seek"/"Chuppan Chupai" + Q&A w/ director Saad Khan
Sponsors: Gender + Women's Studies & Asian Studies
Monday, April 28, 2014 · 4 - 6 PM
"Hide and Seek"/ "Chuppan Chupai" is an award-winning documentary directed by Saad Khan that explores the lives of four transgender, or "hijra," people and their daily trials and triumphs while living in the relatively conservative gender constructs of Pakistan, the second most populous Islamic country in the world. The film depicts the secret yet open lives of a group of Pakistani sexual minorities, raising questions about transgender activism, religion, underground gay life, social acceptance and collective familial customs of transgenders in urban Pakistan.
We follow Jenny, a transgender college student who recently underwent castration, Kami, a fearless cross-dressing gay dancer, who openly lives with his boyfriend, Waseem, an "effeminate" wedding entertainer and a veteran dancing boy, and Neeli who played a huge part when the supreme court in Pakistan changed the constitution in favor of the "third gender." It is the first documentary to shed light on this sexual minority in Pakistan, and offers a timely intervention in re-thinking gender roles in the South Asian context.
