Edinburgh Napier University

  I will investigate how South Asian women have been represented in Scottish films. And through a practice-based autoethnographic exploration of image and sound, I will offer possibilities for complex cinematic representation that challenges stereotyping.
Representations of the South Asian communities in Scotland appear in the periphery of Scottish cinema, where films have predominantly explored narratives about white Scottish masculinity. In a cinema where female voices are often struggling to be heard, South Asian women are virtually invisible, except in a scattering of documentary and fiction films.
I propose to explore how these South Asian female characters/subjects have been represented, not just narratively, but also by paying close attention to the subtextual connotations of framing, montage and the use of sound.
I will construct film sequences that reflect on my own identity as a Pakistani woman, and will reflect on new possibilities for a meaningfully diverse form of representation.