​​​the context

Contrary to scientific and bio-medical definitions and conventions, our minds, lives, beings and experiences do not exist in neatly identifiable tight boxes and binaries. Yet, that remains the primary lens through which individuals continue to be framed and regulated by the interlinked discourses of gender, sexuality and mental health, focused on curing, taming, fixing and treating us, bringing us in line with the ‘normal’. Feminist, and thereafter queer, movements and praxis, have rigorously challenged such mainstream perspectives and practices. They situate gendered realities, power imbalances, stereotypes, labour, expectations, burdens, discrimination, silences, exclusion, marginalisation and routine violation of bodies, minds, emotions and communities – whether in intimate spaces or in the privilege of citizenship, opportunity and legality, at the heart of mental health, well-being and resolution. 

 

Challenging the pathologisation and medicalisation of mental health and well-being, the films aim to expand and deepen the experiential understanding of how gendered realities, inherited and evolving, in conjunction with caste, sexual orientation, class, religion, dis/ability, region, work, race, ethnicity, age and law create, produce and impact the everyday negotiations, vulnerabilities, intimacies, battles and triumphs of minds labelled mad, deviant, unsound or criminal, for being and beating differently. Unpacking the multiple dimensions and interrelated manifestations of mental and emotional health, gender, identity and location in the everyday, they will acknowledge, investigate and record the fundamental role of patriarchy, heteronormativity and structural inequalities in shaping who we are and can be, as individuals and communities; at home and in the world; textures of being and becoming; mediating access to agency, vocabulary, self-expression and material resources; offering and receiving hope, care, love and dignity, while recognising enabling and affirmative relationships, interventions and journeys of healing through the hegemonic and deceitful maze of normalcy.

 

We seek to support, produce and mentor nuanced, affective, authentic and compelling stories and films inspired by peoples’ lived experiences, realities, interiorities and readings, emphasising not just the challenging and fragile, but especially the hopeful and affirmative, as they discover and reclaim their lost and found selves, within and despite a strictly unequal, patriarchal, gendered and normal world. Stories that humanise, offer language and understanding, help listen, illuminate, reflect, question, disrupt, celebrate, enlarge and enrich the discourses, conversations and knowledge around the myriad impulses, expressions and possibilities of our diverse, complex and resilient minds.

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​​​the emphasis

We invite filmmakers to explore the intersections of gender and mental health from their diverse locations and respond with ideas and enquiries that are relevant to their creative and political intentions. Possible overlapping directions, deriving from contemporary feminist priorities, that this Project seeks to specifically pursue, include:

• Burdens of normative identities, expectations, roles, labour, histories and everyday resistance to them.

• Varied experiences of exclusion, othering, prejudice, violence and injustice by dalit, bahujan, muslim, dis/abled, working class, rural, migrant, indigenous persons, and communities as a whole, with absent and unequal access to appropriate and rights-based attention, care, vocabulary, support and healing.

• Living with and negotiating inherited and intergenerational physical and emotional trauma, conflict and violence, both individual and collective.

• Conditions and experiences that adversely impact women and non-binary folks and thus remain invisibilised, unexamined, exaggerated or dismissed.

• Livelihood, labour, work and susceptibilities arising from and in places of work and the discourse of productivity.

• Desire, sexuality, intimacy and sexual expression, especially in the face of hegemonic and aggressive heteronormativity.

• Violence and suffocation within families and the possibilities of supportive, nurturing ones.

• Childhood experiences, impressions and lingering patterns.

• Ageing, being old and forgotten.

• Death, loss, grief and coping.

• Defying stereotypes and caricatures of popular culture representation.

• Inhabiting ‘deviant’ bodies.

• Wild, wicked, hysterical, mad, shameless women!

• The liberating possibilities/ refuge of divergence and insanity in a stifling and patriarchal world.

• Climate change vulnerabilities, distress and resilience.

• Displacement, migration and separation.

• Being outside the purview of law, in contravention with the law and the apparatus of the state, and in prison.

• Institutionalisation, confinement, dehumanisation, elitism and hostilities of conventional care.

• Deconstructing, understanding and initiating conversations around self-harm and suicide as socially produced, challenging the stigma and shame and creating effective prevention and support interventions.

• The lives, resilience, challenges, frustrations, dilemmas and courageous stories of caregivers.

• Person-centered, affirmative, culturally sensitive care, including traditional and indigenous healing systems.

• The role of artistic and other forms of expression in articulating the self, contradictions, pains and joys, resisting hierarchies and reclaiming ways of being and healing.

• Finding and shaping affirmative relationships, friendships, connections and solidarities.

• Diverse and unconventional journeys of healing, care and affirmative therapeutic modalities.

• Motivations, achievements and challenges of mental health defenders.​​​

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​fellowship notes

• The Fellowships are open to women, non-binary, trans and queer filmmakers from marginalised communities, resident in India, who may apply as individuals, teams or as collectives. Applicants are at liberty to propose and work with co-applicants, collaborators and team members, irrespective of how they identify. If case you have any queries around your eligibility to apply, please feel free to reach out to us over email.

• We encourage innovative formats and treatments that best complement your artistic vision.

• We aim to award six fellowships across short (between 15 and 40 minutes), mid (between 40 and 60 minutes) and feature length (between 60 and 75 minutes) films.

• The fellowship budgets would be a maximum of INR 2,50,000/- for a short documentary and INR 5,25,000/- for a feature length documentary, though budgets will vary across projects, based on their respective requirements.

• Ideas and budgets should be commensurate with the size of the Fellowship.

• The films may be in any language - those that most intricately capture the specificities and depths of their subjects. In the interest of outreach, the final films will need to carry subtitles in English.

• We will commission projects developed in response to this Call or those in early stages of development. Projects that have a rough cut or are in need of post-production/ finishing funds only, will not be considered.

• We are not open to co-productions under these Fellowships.

• An Applicant/ team of Applicants can submit only one proposal for consideration under this Call.

• In the case of commissioning, Applicants commit to completing their films in a period of nine-ten months.

• These will be mentored fellowships, developed in dialogue with Rough Edges.

• Those who have submitted proposals for consideration for the Subtext Artistic Research Fellowships are eligible to apply for these Fellowships. Only one of the two fellowships will be awarded to a selected applicant/ team.

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​submission guidelines

• We encourage you to fill the Proposal Submission Form online, available here 

• If you prefer to submit it over email, please download the form here, fill it and send it, in .doc or .pdf format only, to info@roughedgesfoundation.org, with the subject Proposal for Lost and Found Fellowships.

• The deadline for submissions is 22 February 2026.

• In case you have any difficulty filling the Form, please write to us and we will try our best to enable your submission.

• For any queries, write to info@roughedgesfoundation.org

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submission terms

• Rough Edges is not bound to honour incomplete proposals, those that do not reach us or reach us after the submission deadline.

• Rough Edges will not be responsible should multiple proposals explore similar ideas. We may select any or none of them.

• Decisions on the selection of proposals, by the Fellowship Jury, comprising Rough Edges and two independent jurors, will be final.​​​

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