1. Parvez Sharma is a New York-based Indian filmmaker, author, and journalist.
37 Facts About Parvez Sharma
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Parvez Sharma was amongst the 173 fellows selected from 3000 applicants in the 94th year of the fellowship, which originally started in 1925.
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Parvez Sharma received the 2009 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary amongst several other international awards for A Jihad for Love.
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In 2016, Parvez Sharma was named "a human rights defender" by Amnesty International.
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Parvez Sharma's second film, A Sinner in Mecca, premiered at the 2015 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and is a New York Times Critics' Pick amongst other press attention.
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Parvez Sharma was born on 8 July 1973 in New Delhi and grew up in various cities all over India.
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Parvez Sharma's high school was a Catholic School called St Mary's Academy where all students had to recite the Pater Noster during morning assembly.
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Parvez Sharma studied English literature at Presidency College of the University of Calcutta.
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Parvez Sharma received his master's degrees in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia University, Broadcast Journalism from the University of Wales, Cardiff, and Video from American University's School of Communication.
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Parvez Sharma moved to the United States in 2000 as a student at Columbia University's Film School, but was unable to continue a second semester due to lack of funds and moved to American University where he was given scholarships.
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Parvez Sharma worked as television journalist in India and the United Kingdom, including for India's 24-hour news television network NDTV.
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Parvez Sharma has taught as an adjunct professor at American University, developing and teaching that university's first curriculum on Bollywood and other Indian cinemas.
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Parvez Sharma's piece "Emerging from the Shadows" for The Statesman in India was the country's first major newspaper article to discuss the life of Indian lesbians.
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Parvez Sharma was involved in the organization of the first organized LGBT effort in the state of West Bengal and has spoken internationally on LGBT issues, human rights violations across the world and the crisis in 21st century Islam.
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In 2009 Parvez Sharma reported about the aborted Green Movement in Iran using firsthand accounts and interviews with friends in Tehran and often giving readers of The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast a look into the workings of the uprising.
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In early 2011 Parvez Sharma blogged about the revolution in Egypt, providing a local perspective on the events.
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Parvez Sharma spoke about the nature and extent of social media influence in the Middle East to press across the world, including interviews with newspapers in China, including the South China Morning Post and interviews on various US networks including CNBC, MSNBC and FOX News.
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Parvez Sharma continues to be a commentator on Islamic, racial and political issues.
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In 2009 Parvez Sharma wrote the foreword for the anthology Islam and Homosexuality.
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Parvez Sharma was interviewed and his work was profiled in journalist Robin Wrights book 'Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion in the Middle East'.
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In 2016 Parvez Sharma won the Monette Horowitz award given to individuals and organizations for their significant contributions toward eradicating homophobia.
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In 2009, Parvez Sharma was named as one of "50 Visionaries changing your world" in a list headed by the Dalai Lama.
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On 29 May 2013 Parvez Sharma was honored as an "LGBT hero" by first-lady Michelle Obama at a DNC fundraiser in New York.
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Parvez Sharma has received awards and grants over the years including.
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Parvez Sharma's work was screened and awarded in many film festivals including:.
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Parvez Sharma is best known for directing the films A Jihad for Love and A Sinner in Mecca.
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In July 2009 Parvez Sharma conducted workshops on Islam and homosexuality with German parliamentarians in Berlin and was invited to screen and workshop A Jihad for Love by the European Union.
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Parvez Sharma has conducted more than 200 live events across the world, talking about Islam and, in part, its relation to topics ranging from ISIS to homosexuality.
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VICE said the threats were a "barrage" adding that, "Parvez Sharma is no stranger to controversial filmmaking".
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In 15 August 2017, Parvez Sharma released his first book A Sinner in Mecca, A Gay Muslim's Hajj of Defiance by publisher BenBella Books.
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Parvez Sharma has called the book as the final product of his "Islam Trilogy" in various interviews.
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Parvez Sharma has been a featured speaker at more than 40 college campuses in the US, which include Stanford, Berkeley, Yale, Columbia, NYU, Harvard, Syracuse, Northwestern and the University of Chicago.
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Parvez Sharma toured several US Southern States in 2009 and called it his "Bible Belt Tour" speaking directly to issues around LGBT rights within conservative Christian communities.
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In 2009 Parvez Sharma was invited as a keynote speaker to the United Nations at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy during Durban Review Conference.
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Parvez Sharma was invited by the Foreign Services Institute of the US Department of State as a keynote speaker in Washington, DC, on 21 June 2012.
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Parvez Sharma called it the "Underground Network Model" of film distribution.
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Parvez Sharma invented this model sending unmarked DVDs of the film with friends and colleagues to Muslim capitals across the world with full permission to sell pirated copies.