Parvez Sharma is a New York-based Indian-American filmmaker, author, and journalist. He is a recipient of the 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship in the film/video category. He was amongst the 173 fellows selected from 3000 applicants in the 94th year of the fellowship, which originally started in 1925. In an official press release by the foundation, president Edward Hirsch said, "The winners of the 94th annual competition as "the best of the best...This diverse group of scholars, artists, and scientists are appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise." Sharma is best known for his two films A Jihad for Love, A Sinner in Mecca, and his 2017 book A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim's Hajj of Defiance. A Jihad for Love was the world's first film documenting the lives of gay and lesbian Muslims. He received the 2009 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary amongst several other international awards for A Jihad for Love. In 2016, Sharma was named "a human rights defender" by Amnesty International. This was an award given at the Hague in the Netherlands to "worldwide human rights activists" which he shared with the Saudi human rights activist Ensaf Haidar.
His second film, A Sinner in Mecca, premiered at the 2015 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and is a New York Times Critics' Pick amongst other press attention. Over the years, worldwide press have profiled Parvez Sharma and reviewed his work. For example, The New York Times collectively in two excerpts and two reviews, says "There is no doubting the courage and conviction of the New York documentarian Parvez Sharma…We emerge from (Sharma's) films more enlightened, but arranging to meet (this filmmaker) is a little like setting up an appointment with an extremely polite spy. Nothing in his difficult processes -- including the threats to himself -- have destroyed Mr. Sharma's faith in the ability of Islam to tolerate diversity." The newspaper also showcased his short films online. In 2004 the New York Times had said, "threats to the director have become routine." This was almost four years before A Jihad for Love was released. The New York Times said "After A Jihad for Love, Mr. Sharma was labeled a Kafir, and in the intervening years, he has gotten more death threats than he cares to recall."
Early life Sharma was born on 8 July 1973 in New Delhi and grew up in various cities all over India. His high school was a Catholic School called St Mary's Academy where all students had to recite the Pater Noster during morning assembly. He studied English literature at Presidency College of the University of Calcutta. He received his master's degrees in Mass Communication (Film and Television) from Jamia Millia Islamia University, Broadcast Journalism from the University of Wales, Cardiff, and Video from American University's School of Communication. He moved to the United States in 2000 as a student at Columbia University's Film School, but was unable to continue a second semester due to lack of funds and moved to American University where he was given scholarships.
Early career Parvez Sharma worked as television journalist in India and the United Kingdom, including for India's 24-hour news television network NDTV. A journalist, Sharma has worked in radio, print, and broadcast. Sharma worked as a producer at Democracy Now! in New York in 2003. He has taught as an adjunct professor at American University, developing and teaching that university's first curriculum on Bollywood and other Indian cinemas.
His piece "Emerging from the Shadows" for The Statesman in India was the country's first major newspaper article to discuss the life of Indian lesbians.
He was involved in the organization of the first organized LGBT effort in the state of West Bengal and has spoken internationally on LGBT issues, human rights violations across the world and the crisis in 21st century Islam.
Career On 18 November 2017, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Sanctuary for Independent Media said, "For the past decade he has made fearless, multiple award winning films about faith, identity, religious extremism and social justice." The Washington Post said about the second film, "In the film, Sharma condemns the Saudi government's strict interpretation of Islam, which he says promotes the dangerous ideology that produces groups such as the militant Islamic State." Reviewing A Jihad for Love the newspaper had said, "Sharma is right to keep his focus tight. He is interested in the faithful and their conflicts, not the broader cultural issues surrounding sex and Islamic society." The Los Angeles Times said Sharma "crossed several dangerous lines in his work and the government in Singapore banned A Jihad for Love and that the Muslim Judicial Council in South Africa has declared him an apostate." Fridae Asia reported, "A Jihad for Love - which Singapore censors say is too controversial to be shown at the country's international film festival last year - was broadcast to potentially more than a billion in India and other countries by India's NDTV." A Jihad for Love was banned from the Singapore International Film Festival in 2008 by the Media Development Authority, which oversees the censorship board, "in view of the sensitive nature of the subject that features Muslim homosexuals in various countries and their struggle to reconcile religion and their lifestyle." About 14 percent of Singapore's 4.4 million population is Muslim. Singapore banned A Sinner in Mecca, as did Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Yet semi-open screenings were held in Cairo, Kuala Lumpur and Karachi. In just its opening week during a limited release of 33 cities, A Jihad for Love, for example, ran for four weeks at New York's IFC theaters. The film grossed $22,287, out of which $10,519 was just in New York. The Domestic Total Gross for the film is $105,659. A Jihad for Love was theatrically released in 33 cities, while A Sinner in Mecca was released in only four cities, for a week each. Its box office numbers were low, except in New York where it had a higher box office return of $11,220.
Filmography +TitleYearNotesRef.Dance of the Wind1997Assistant Director, Assistant CastingTwenty Four Hours (Farooq Abdullah) (Star TV)1998Producer, Correspondent The Gujarat Trilogy (Star TV)1999Producer, Correspondent Arranged Shaadi (BBC World and Star TV)1999 Producer, Correspondent In The Name of Allah2002Director, cinematographer, producerSilverlake Life2003Additional Camera, Assistant Editor (DVD)Tying The Knot2004Associate ProducerThe Hour (TV Series)2007InterviewedA Jihad for Love2008Director, cinematographer, producerA Sinner in Mecca2015Director, writer, producer, cinematographer
General As a commentator on Islamic, racial and political issues, Sharma's writings have appeared on The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast and The Guardian.
In 2009 Sharma reported about the aborted Green Movement in Iran using firsthand accounts and interviews with friends in Tehran and often giving readers of The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast a look into the workings of the uprising.
In early 2011 Sharma blogged about the revolution in Egypt, providing a local perspective on the events. He spoke about the nature and extent of social media influence in the Middle East to press across the world, including interviews with newspapers in China, including the South China Morning Post and interviews on various US networks including CNBC, MSNBC and FOX News.
Sharma continues to be a commentator on Islamic, racial and political issues. In 2009 Sharma wrote the foreword for the anthology Islam and Homosexuality (Praeger, 2009). He was interviewed and his work was profiled in journalist Robin Wrights book 'Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion in the Middle East'. His work on the Arab Spring was profiled in author Cole Strykers book 'Hacking the Future: Privacy, Identity and Anonymity on the Web'. In 2007 he wrote a chapter for the book Gay Travels in the Muslim World.
The US-based OUT Magazine named Sharma one of the OUT 100 twice for 2008 and 2015- "one of the 100 gay men and women who have helped shape our culture during the year". In 2016 Sharma won the Monette Horowitz award given to individuals and organizations for their significant contributions toward eradicating homophobia.
In his early career he has worked on programming for BBC World Television (India), the Discovery Channel (United States), and the World Bank (United States).
As an author Sharma is represented by literary agency Sterling Lord Literistic. As a speaker, he was represented by Lavin Speakers and Keppler Speakers.
In 2009, Sharma was named as one of "50 Visionaries changing your world" in a list headed by the Dalai Lama. On 29 May 2013 Sharma was honored as an "LGBT hero" by first-lady Michelle Obama at a DNC fundraiser in New York.
Awards In 2018, Sharma was the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in the film/video category.
Sharma has received awards and grants over the years including
The Sundance Documentary Fund [Dec, 2006]
Andy Warhol Foundation for The Visual Arts [Dec, 2006]
GLAAD Media Award, 2008 for Outstanding Documentary
The Ted Snowdon Foundation [June, 2005]
The Hartley Film Foundation [June, 2005]
The Yip Harburg Foundation [Nov, 2005 and Aug, 2007]
Stonewall Community Fund [Nov, 2005]
H. van Ameringen Foundation [November 2005, June 2007, December 2007, October 2013, September 2015]
Foundation for Fairer Capitalism [Feb, 2006]
E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation [March, 2006]
Tides Foundation 4/2006 and [April, 2008]
Rita J. & Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation, Inc. [May, 2006]
The Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program [June, 2006]
Reid Williams Foundation [July, 2006]
The Fledgling Fund [Aug, 2006]
B.W. Bastian Foundation [Aug, 2006 and July, 2007]
The Reva & David Logan Foundation [Sep, 2006]
The Ford Foundation Matching Gift Program [Sep, 2006]
Jeff Lewy Trust [Sep, 2006]
Horizons Foundation [September 2006, October 2006, March, 2007, July 2007 and March 2008]
Rosenthal Rev. Trust [Oct, 2006]
Global Fund for Women [Oct, 2006]
Zeigler Family Trust [Nov, 2006]
The Katahdin Foundation [Dec, 2006]
The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation [Dec, 2006] and [Dec, 2007]
Arcus Foundation [Jan, 2007 and Jan, 2008]
Cinereach [Oct, 2005]
The CAA Foundation [Jan, 2007]
Gill Foundation [Jan, 2007 and Feb, 2007]
Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund [Jan, 2007]
Lucius & Eva Eastman Fund [April, 2007]
Arts PAC—Artists for Freedom Of Expression [June, 2007]
The Zacks Family Foundation [Aug, 2007]
The Ted Snowdon Foundation [Sep, 2007]
Cinereach Foundation [Sep, 2007 and March, 2008]
The Paul Rapoport Foundation [May, 2008]
Lesbian Equity Fund (Astraea) [April, 2008]
The Elliott H. Matthews Foundation [June, 2008]
Best Film, Image +Nation, Montreal 2008, 2015
Best Film, Mix Brasil 2008
Film Festivals Parvez Sharma's work was screened and awarded in many film festivals including:
Milan International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
Outfest - Grand Jury Award
Sheffield International Documentary Festival
Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Best Film, Tricontinental Festival India, 2008
Special Teddy, Berlin International Film Festival 2008
Outfest, Los Angeles, Best Documentary, 2008 and 2015
Best Film, Turin Film Festival, 2008
Best Film, Amal Arab Film Festival, 2008
Best Documentary, Rapid Lion Film Festival, Johannesburg [March, 2016]
Best Documentary, Reeling Film Festival, Chicago [Oct, 2018]
Best Documentary, One World International Film Festival, Prague, 2008
Films: A Jihad for Love and A Sinner in Mecca
Sharma is best known for directing the films A Jihad for Love and A Sinner in Mecca. A Jihad for Love is a documentary that seeks to refute the belief that LGBT Muslims do not exist. This film was preceded by a short film called In the Name of Allah.