Featured videos of the Transwomen Trainees

One of our trainees,  transwoman Kanchana filmed this interesting video. Will Chennai people accept a transgender person as an M.L.A?

Watch Kanchana's Film



Watch Abinaya's Film - Abi, with Love


Watch Roja's Film - Love, Marriage and Transwomen



Watch Sowndharya's Film - My Mother



Watch Maanu's Film -United Hands


Watch Sandhiya's Film - Abandoned Souls

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Bold and the Beautiful - at Spaces, Chennai

We held another show of the documentaries of our girls at SPACES in Besant Nagar, Chennai on 12th June 2011 celebrating the pride month. Our dress code for the occasion was Black and White. We were sizzling :). The event was a success. Many students interacted with the group and there were healthy discussions after the film. Selvi's film and Roja's film were screened first time. Welcome girls!

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PROJECT KALKI team renders voice for Queens! Destiny of Dance - Hindi to Tamil dubbed film

Transsexual women of PROJECT KALKI team render their voices for the Hindi to Tamil dubbed version of Queens! Destiny of Dance - the bollywood film. Transsexual women Kalki, Olga, Sowndharya, Sandhiya, Kanchana, Reema raji and Roby.

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Advocacy and Empowerment through Online Radio

Here is my first podcast on Project Kalki podcasting initiative. Please listen to it.

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Project Kalki's successful screening in Russian Cultural Centre, Chennai

The first screening of our short documentaries made by 7 transgender women including my film 'Smile' was a huge success. My trainees were so happy to see their creations on big screen. Think about the confidence they will get after the screening. Not only were they inspired to make more such documentaries, but also some of the transwomen who were in the audience also were inspired to learn multimedia and film making. That was the second success on the same day because, the ultimate aim is to inspire more under privileged transgender people, transform, empower and provide them opportunities for a dignified life.

The evening after screening, we celebrated at my home.

What the media says about the screening?


‘Eunuch’ No More Theme of Transgender Documentaries - Medindia Exclusive

Teenage Transgender Documentary on ‘Hope’

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Documenting the courageous stories of People living with HIV

For World AIDS day, we got a small funding of Rs.25,000 from INFOSEM. Five girls from our team will document positive and inspiring stories of people living with HIV. We will film their interviews and glimpses of  their lives in these short documentary films. These visible and courageous role models will rise hope and confidence for a long and meaning life for people living with HIV. For others, it will sensitize to accept people living with HIV and support them.

I will be editing these films and have planned to screen it on 10th of December, World Human Rights day. Our work continues with new assignments and 'PROJECT KALKI' is really taking of well. We need so much support from people. I hope in 2011, some of my team girls who are still begging and doing sex work will be able to emerge and lead a dignified life.

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Future Plans

PROJECT KALKI will reach out to more under privileged transgender people. After our screening in event in Chennai and Coimbatore, we will be making more films in the coming months. From September 2011, we have plans to screen our documentary films in several venues across India. The films made by our girls will participate in many films festivals too.

. In the coming months, many more transgender girls will be trained to make their own short documentary films. By October, many of them will have made documentaries.In October 2010, we will conduct a special film festival to specially screen all the films made by the girls
.
I have plans to teach them complete multimedia skills including photography, videography, film editing, audio and sound, and the spectacular world of internet and the web media  technologies. In 2011, I want setup a big multimedia center which will be a training and production house for visual media and communication, a education project for transgender women. Through this center, not only the poor transgender women will benefit but also any under-privileged student from any community can learn and empower themselves.

Kalki Subramaniam

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Introducing the community journalists

PROJECT KALKI provides training for transgender women to transform them as community journalists, documentary film makers and media artists. The first seven transgender women who are being trained in video documentary film training and community video video blogging are:

• Abinaya
• Monal
• Kanchana
• Gomathi
• Santhiya Chandru
• Sowmiya
• Sowndharya
• Sandhiya

Sandhiya is being trained by Kalki. Sandhiya is making a documentary about abandoned old people.

These women are making their own documentaries now. After the completion of their films followed by the immediate screening, we will invite more transgender women to participate in this project.

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Media Reviews

Media coverage on PROJECT KALKI


Times of India, Chennai 
3G MOVIES
A Group Of People Of The Third Gender Wield Handycams To Portray Lives Of The Lesser Privileged
Priya M Menon | TNN 
A group of people huddle around a laptop in a small room. As the rain drums steadily onto the asbestos roof, transgender (TG) rights activist Kalki Subramaniam takes them through the various stages involved in making a short film. Read more..

The Hindu

Thursday, Sep 02, 2010

Transgender tales

Akila Kannadasan

In a novel initiative, at the Kovai Rainbow Film Festival, seven transgenders screened documentaries they had filmed covering issues close to their heart..Read more..

Medindia Exclusive

Eunuch’ No More Theme of Transgender Documentaries

by Nancy Needhima on  November 18, 2010 at 5:28 PM

Transgender persons in India and other Asian countries are gradually surfacing from the social stigma. Read more..

Medindia Exclusive

Teenage Transgender Documentary on ‘Hope’

by Nancy Needhima on  November 18, 2010 at 6:21 PM

 
Transgender Kanchana’s life is very similar to the stuff nightmares are made of. Read more..

SifyNews

2010-11-20 15:10:00 ANI 
Chennai's transgender activist trains community members in film making

A transgender activist, Kalki Subramaniam, trains her community members in documentary film-making in Chennai.

Subramaniam said on Friday the Information Technology could play a tremendous role in the empowerment of marginalised, stigmatised transgender community. Read more..

Women's Feature Service
The Celluloid Dreams of Transgenders
by Hema Vijay, December 6, 2010
Chennai (Women's Feature Service) - They are seen as people who harass pedestrians on the streets, collect money by threatening people, kidnap kids, engage in sex work, and so on. But these stereotypes do little justice to transgenders. Like everybody else, they can be dynamic litterateurs, creative artists and, above all, socially committed individuals. Read more..

The Hindu
January 18, 2011

The correct picture

Akila Kannadasan

Tamil cinema has long degraded transgenders, often depicting them as prostitutes and hecklers. “This should change. Such movies give the audience a wrong notion about us,” says Kalki Subramanian, a transgender rights activist. Read more...

Indian Video Activist Puts Transgender in Focus

By Paromita Pain

WeNews correspondent

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Kalki Subramaniam's video project for transgender women in India began with her own scholarship in video making. Now she's assisting other transgender women to shoot their own video as a way of breaking out of poverty and abuse..... Read more..

 

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Screening Events

The documentary films of the first seven girls were screened at Kovai Rainbow Festival celebrations on 26th June 2010 at :

Hotel Tamilnadu Premises

Jail road, Gandhipuram,

Coimbatore. 

Our second screening was held on 12th November 2010 at:

Russian Centre of Science and Culture

Kasturi Ranga Road, 

Chennai.

Our third screening event was held on 31st December at:

Sahodari Community Centre, 

Kottivakkam,

Chennai.

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About Kalki

Greeitngs friends!

My name is Kalki Subramaniam. I am the founder of ‘Sahodari Foundation’ an organization working for the social and economic empowerment of transgender persons.I am transgender rights activist, and a transsexual woman myself. I hold two Master’s degrees - first one in Journalism and Mass Communication and the second in International Relations.

In December 2010, I won a scholarship from a Goa based organisation called 'Women Aloud'. I attended a two weeks program called WAVE (Women Empowerment Through Video Blogging). After the completion of my training, I was provided with a camera to make documentary film every month on community issues. Since then I have been working on that and have produced 5 small documentary films.  The camera, which is a Canon Legria FS 200, a small handycam, has been a great tool for my advocacy work.

In April 2010, I had the idea to use the camera to its full potential and beyond and went a a step ahead. I wanted to share my knowledge with my transgender community. This was exciting to me and 'Project Kalki' was born. I named the project as 'Project Kalki' because it a dream project for me.

This project will transform them as documentary film makers. It is a great achievement for each one of them. All the interested and talented girls will be further trained in multimedia and will be placed in jobs when they can use their creative potential to the maximum. The idea is to provide them livelihood through training in multimedia skills.

 Many of them never imagined they can make their own documentary films.I am extremely happy that I am providing this opportunity to my friends. It gives me bliss to see their happiness when they work on their films. with extreme dedication.

KALKI

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The training modules

Seven under privileged transgender girls are continuously being trained in documentary film script writing, story board, video film shooting, technics such as different camera angles and shots, camera handling and safety. These women are given first hand training by Kalki.

 Expert documentary film makers and script writers are volunteering to train our girls in documentary film making. They share their abundant knowledge with the girls through specially arranged classes for them.

We will be taking in more interested girls in the future and offer them the opportunity to learn and be documentary film makers. If you are interested to be a part of this project in anyway, please write to Kalki. Her email address is: aurokalki@gmail.com

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Contact

This project is found and led by Kalki Subramaniam

. She can be contacted through mail. Email her at : aurokalki@gmail.com. Kalki's facebook URL is http://www.facebook.com/kalki.subramaniam

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About the project

Project Kalki is the voice of the voiceless. Transgender women, all over the world, have been the most marginalised, stigmatised and discriminated community for centuries. Except in Tamilnadu, our voices have not been heard anywhere in India.

This is a project to empower those women to speak who have not spoken, to hear their voices. To empower them to tell  the world what they wanted to say through video films. As citizens of this great country, transgender women also care about other under privileged people and care about social problems of this country.

In this dream project, Kalki provides a Canon Legria FS 200 hanycam to seven under privileged transgender women. They are also provided with all the accessories needed for filming. These women carry the camera in their hands for a few days and shoot their stories and subjects. After one person completes the filming, she hands it over to the next girl. When all the seven girls finish their shoots, their films are edited and made as short documentary films by themselves. 

These subjects these girls have chosen are all unique. For example, Gomathi wants to do a short documentary on street children, Sandhiya wants to do a story on abandoned aged people and Monal does a story on garbage pickers. Some girls have chosen the subject of their relationships. 

These films will be screened at a venue in Chennai and other places in India.

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Join hands with us

Thank you for visiting our website. I am sure you would encourage and support our quick project. There are many ways to support us.

Be a sponsor

When you are a sponsor our project, it helps the whole team to move forward with zest. You, as a sponsor, will get a very good name and be publicized at all our screening events and programs.

Write to Kalki for more detailed information. Her email address is : aurokalki@gmail.com

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