Neelu Bhuman

Neelu Bhuman is an independent auteur filmmaker exploring socio-political themes as they play out on an interpersonal level. Their films playfully explore nuanced viewpoints on race, gender, sexuality, culture, class, and romance. Neelu’s first fiction feature film TRANSFINITE (2019) and short films FU377 (2014) and MORE LOVE. LESS PREPACKAGED BULLSHIT (2017) present abstract retellings of the dilemma of reducing identity to finite categories. Their work foregrounds the resilience and resistance of marginalized communities in the face of political and personal duress. TRANSFINITE (2019) was the opening night feature at 2019 San Francisco’s Transgender Film Festival and a critics pick at Austin’s aGLIFF. Neelu is a 2022 Sundance Uprise grant nominee and their WIP feature doc CHIRAKU (Wing) was shortlisted for the 2021 Doc Society New Perspectives Fellowship.

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ABOUT CHIRAKU (Wing)

Young Muslim transman Adam Harry dreams of becoming a commercial pilot. After escaping pernicious family persecution, he is armed with a Kerala government scholarship, a growing fanbase, and media presence. Will this be enough to help Adam defy bureaucratic discrimination and continue his training to become the first transgender commercial pilot of Indian origin?

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