Bios

Nancy Nicol (Producer, Director, Editor) is a professor in the Visual Arts and Art History Department, York University, a documentary filmmaker and the principal investigator for Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights, an international research project that brings together 31 partners in 12 countries to research and document LGBT rights and social movement histories.

Her films include the four-part documentary series From Criminality to Equality (2002-2009) on the history of lesbian and gay rights organizing in Canada; One Summer in New Paltz, A Cautionary Tale (2008) on the civil disobedience same-sex marriage movement in the USA; Dykes Planning Tykes: Queering the Family Tree (2011) and No Easy Walk to Freedom (2014) on the legal challenge to s. 377 of the Indian Penal Code, the first of the British colonial laws that criminalized ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature.’ Nicol's award-winning documentaries have screened widely in international film festivals and are used in universities and colleges internationally. She is currently working on a documentary on the movement for LGBT rights in Botswana, and on a number of participatory video projects with Envisioning partners in Africa and the Caribbean.

Nicol’s recent scholarly publications include: "Sexual Rights and the LGBTI movement in Botswana" by Monica Tabengwa with Nancy Nicol in: Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Commonwealth: Struggles for Decriminalisation and Change. Corinne Lennox and Matthew Waites (eds.) London: Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, London, UK. April 2013; "Legal Struggles and Political Resistance: Same-Sex Marriage in Canada and the U.S.", by Nancy Nicol and Miriam Smith, in Same-Sex Marriage in the Americas, ed. Adriana Crocker, Pierceson and Schulenberg, pub. Lexington, June 2010; "Politics of the Heart: recognition of homoparental families," in Who's Your Daddy? And Other Writings on Queer Parenting, ed. Rachel Epstein (Sumac Press, March 2009). www.yorku.ca/nnicol; envisioninglgbt.blogspot.ca; www.noeasywalktofreedom.com

Shakeb Ahmed (Director of Photography) studied English Literature at Jamia Millia University in Delhi, India. An exposure to European Cinema made him interested in making a transition from studying word to studying image. He subsequently completed a Masters program in film and television production from AJK Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia, New Delhi in the year 2000. He has since then been working independently as a cinematographer and an institutional, developmental, and actuality documentary filmmaker for last thirteen years. He is deeply interested in the structures and constructions underlying identity, memory, history and mediums of expression made use of to express these and much more.

A cinematographer and director based in Delhi, India, his credits include, director: Tales From A Place Less Traveled: Azamgarh (2011, documentary, India), a portrait of a small town in Uttar Pradesh, India; assistant producer for Louis Vuitton International Campaign 2011, shot in Rajasthan, India; and cinematographer for No Easy Walk To Freedom (2014, directed and produced by Nancy Nicol); Ghetto Girl (2011, directed by Ambarien Alqadar); Its Cricket, No! (2011, directed by Gregory French and Sudhir Aggarwal); and The River Flowing Westwards (2010, Lion TV for BBC Channel 3).

Pearl Sandhu (Line Producer) is a director and producer based in Dehli, India. Her credits include: line-producer, No Easy Walk to Freedom (2014, directed and produced by Nancy Nicol); production manager, Dal Puri Diaspora (2012, directed and produced by Richard Fung); line producer for an Online Viral Campaign for Maruti Zen Estilo (2011); researcher K_i_s_s_a ( 2010, by Anup Singh); and line producer, Teach India Campaign (2009).