“Sundari-The Indian Goddess”, a film by Kirk Cohall, portrays Sundari, an Indo-Caribbean drag performer, as she prepares to perform at the Caribbean Equality Project’s 5th Annual Love is L.O.V.E.: Living Our Values Equally show on February 22, 2020.

Sundari is originally from Guyana and currently resides in Far Rockaway, Queens. She has been performing since 2012 after being discovered at the Raj Kumari Cultural Center, where she was the first Indo-Caribbean/Guyanese drag queen to perform in a non-LGBTQ+ musical production in Queens.

In this show, Sundari’s does a dance called the Mudra, a fusion of Hip Hop and Contemporary dance styles, as a tribute to the Mongol Empire in India.

During her preparation for the performance, Sundari provides an intimate look at her process of getting into drag while also giving insight into Indo-Caribbean drag culture in New York City. She describes the need for people like her to continue to break barriers and educate the community about some of the hardships endured by LGBTQ people of color.

Sundari is currently the only Indo-Caribbean drag queen who uses performance as a tool to help promote the intersectionality of Caribbean arts and culture with the community of LGBTQ people of Indo-Caribbean descent in New York City. Sundari expresses the importance of sharing her culture with the greater New York City area and encourages more Caribbean LGBTQ people of color to advocate for tolerance and equality.

A Portrait of New York is an assignment for documentary film students at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @CUNY and Dutch students visiting from Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands to produce a compelling, character based, visual vignette. The class is co-taught by Newmark-J Professors Bob Sacha, Yoruba Richen and Utrecht Professors Brian Maston and Arjan Kroon.

Kirk Cohall is a freelance multimedia journalist and student at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. At CUNY he specializes in Documentary Filmmaking, with an Urban concentration. Terrence Fraser is a multimedia producer and freelance journalist. He’s also a proud Caribbean and lifelong Brooklyn resident working to highlight NYC’s marginalized voices. Ingmar Kuitert, is a young freelance creator/filmmaker born and raised in The Netherlands.