In 2019, four queer South Asian women found each other in NYC and decided to create something that would represent their collective lived experience of family, faith and coming into their identities. Hi! Rita, Mehr, Jyotsna and Alisha here and after four years of iterating, navigating a global pandemic, moving across the country from one another and doing a lot of growing up as artists, we finally shot the thing! 

When the neighborhood's top realtor suspects paranormal activity in NIKITA’s childhood home, she gets stuck in a bind: how’s she supposed to sell the place now? That is, until she discovers the source of the haunting: the ghost of her recently deceased, super religious mother, PHILOMENA. Confused as to why she is still on Earth when she should be in Heaven, Philomena urges her daughter to help shepherd her into the afterlife, which Nikita finds a smidge hypocritical because of their lifelong disagreements about the entry requirements into heaven and Nikita's supposed failure to meet them (a.k.a. her being gay). Nikita and Philomena are forced to confront every conflict they've avoided about their belief systems, identities, and fraught relationship to accomplish two equally hard feats: getting into heaven and making a profit in the suburban New Jersey real estate market.

Though this story contains pieces of the four of us, undeniably the source of inspiration for I’m Dead Right comes from Rita’s personal relationship with her religious mother. Most coming out stories we’ve seen in movies and on TV end in two scenarios—complete rejection or complete acceptance. But what happens when your religious mom loves you and is also simultaneously praying that Kirk Cameron will be her future son-in-law? This is the relationship we want to showcase between Nikita and Philomena. Additionally, as Rita became more confident in her sexuality, she began to question the Christian faith she was raised in. This led her to want to explore what happens to an individual who did all the “right things” but still didn’t end up in their vision of the afterlife.  

Through humor and a sprinkle of magical realism, I’M DEAD RIGHT? shines a light on a religious parent’s journey of reconciling their steadfast beliefs alongside the love of their child. After watching this film, we hope that queer individuals feel more confident in navigating their complicated familial relationships and that parents of queer kids become more open to not just accepting but celebrating their children. 

In June 2023, we filmed I’m Dead Right? in Queens, NY over the course of three and a half days. The next step is to edit and finish the film, apply to film festivals and organize screenings for our communities in LA and NYC (and anywhere else there is interest!). 

In order for us to achieve this, we need to raise finishing funds to cover the costs outlined in our “Wish List” (Anything that we raise over $10K will be used to recoup production costs). We have been incredibly lucky to have built a village of supporters who helped us finance the production of “I’m Dead Right?”. Now, we invite you to come aboard our team to get us to the finish line and help send this story out into the world!