As a non-binary person of colour, part of my vision for SANDALWOOD was to explore the trans experience from a non-western, postcolonial perspective. It represents the refusal to conform to a dominant western script that treats authenticity of identity and individual agency rather simplistically, ignoring the complex considerations of social and cultural harmony. For a film to be queer, brown and non-linear is to exist in an unorthodox space through which I believe a natural harmony can be reached.
Shaik Aqeel
Creator
Shaik Aqeel is a poet trying to capture moral experience through a queer, South Asian lens. They divide their time between many creative projects, the most recent of which are 'Five Takes for Craig', a physical theatre piece, and the manuscript 'kashmir, 1946', published by AFTERIMAGE Press. They are a part of sploosh!, a youth literary collective, and can often be found fawning over their records.
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