Men Become Women, Women Become Men
thursday june 7 | 14.00 hrs

Between the Lines: India’s Third Gender
Being a woman as well as an Indian, photographer Anita Khemka succeeds in becoming close to the Hijras in India, something that any westerner or man would never achieve. The Hijras are hermaphrodites, living as a group of outcasts on the edge of Hindu society. Despite their officially denied existence and their infertility, according to Hindu religion Hijras are believed to have a talent to spread fertility. And although they have no apparent sexual organs, the erotic is omnipresent in their everyday lives. Anita Khemka is followed through India with three Hijras – Laxmi, Rambha and Asha – on a journey that introduces us to a world of fascination and the bizarre.

Thomas Wartmann (Germany) | India | 2005 | 95 min | English subtitles

camera: Thomas Riedelsheimer
sound: Nararayan Therar
editor: Thomas Riedelsheimer
producer: Thomas Wartmann
awards: Winner in all Categories River to River Festival Florence | Audience Award TLGFF Torino | Vision-Award Max-Ophüls Festival

contact: Thomas Wartmann (Filmquadrat)
t: +49 8938329820
e: info@filmquadrat.de
w: www.filmquadrat.de

Thomas Wartmann is educated in journalism for film and print media in Munich and at the American Film Institute, Los Angeles. After finishing his studies he started as a free-lance reporter for various print-magazines with articles from all over the world. Since 1990 he got ever more occupied with writing and directing TV-reports, documentaries and fiction-films.