User:Divya Bharathi, Independent Filmmaker

Divya Bharathi is a Independent filmmaker from India.

Acclaimed for reactionary films, her passion for documentaries was fueled by circumstances under which she was brought up from a very young age.

A queer, Bharathi's films are intense social critiques which probe issues such as manual scavenging, caste-based discrimination, and the government's apathy to tackle such issues.

Although Bharathi joined Visual Communication course, she was thrown out of college. She ended up in a law college as she thought knowledge of the law could greatly help her activism. However, her passion for filmmaking led her to learn editing independently.

Inspired by Argentine film director, Fernando Solanas, Bharathi's films are political statements aimed at the awakening social conscience.

Financed through crowdfunding, her documentaries at once trouble and provoke the audience.

The spark for her first important documentary, "Kakkoos"(2017), was lit by the demise of two sanitary labourers after they fell into a septic tank while working. Using nauseating visuals exposes the working condition of sanitary workers and deliberates how caste determines the social predicament of these workers.

Similarly, the second film titled Orutharum Varela (Nobody Came) (2018) which chronicled the failure of government in tackling Cyclone Ockhi, resulting in deaths of hundreds of fishermen in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Currently, she is working on a documentary and feature film focusing on the issues transgender encounter as they eke out a living in a mainly patriarchal society like India.

As her films are strident critique of the State and its functionaries, she often faces threats. Despite all odds, she is determined to carry on her mission.