Flying in the  face of the dastardly IPC 377, South Asia’s biggest rainbow  film festival is on! Short-sighted court ‘mis-judgements’  haven’t stopped Mumbai’s Liberty Cinema, Alliance Francaise de Bombay and Max Mueller Bhavan from supporting KASHISH, South Asia’s biggest and India’s only mainstream LGBTQ film festival. The festival will screen 182 films from 53 countries from May 25-29.

One of the most eagerly awaited events in Bombay’s queer calendar is the Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, which will take place from May 25, simultaneously at the capacious art deco Liberty Cinema at Marine Lines, and the cosier Alliance Francaise headquarters at Theosophy Hall, barely a stone’s throw away, and  The Max Mueller Bhavan in Kala Ghoda.

The theme of the festival this year is ‘7 Shades of Love’.

“The quality of the films in competition this year is a testimony of diversity of narrative style as well as technical and aesthetic brilliance of filmmaking,” said Sridhar Rangayan, festival director.

“They are not just LGBTQ films, but films that have a new storytelling edge to them. Every year KASHISH tries to raise the bar, and this year the films in competition in seven categories are definitely world-class,” he added.

The film festival will have an eminent jury panel comprising filmmakers and actors, and the competition will have seven categories.

Check out some of the films which will be screened this year. In the Narrative Feature category: ‘Beautiful Something’ directed by Joseph Graham;  ‘Daddy’ directed by Gerald McCullouch; ‘How to Win At Checkers’ directed by Josh Kim; ‘Two Girls Descending The Stairs’ directed by Fabiano de Souza from Brazil.

In the Documentary Feature category:  ‘An Act Of Love’ directed by Scott Sheppard; ‘Coming In’ directed by Marlies Demeulandre;  ‘Pansy’  directed by Jean-Baptiste Erreca.

In the Indian Narrative Short film category: ‘Maanam’ directed by Balaji M; ‘ Daaravtha’ directed by Nishant Roy Bombarde; ‘ Any Other Day’ directed by Srikant Ananthkrishnan and Vikrant Dhote; ‘That’s My Boy’ directed by Akhil Sathyan; ‘Walking The Walk’ directed by Moses Tulasi.

[Prepared From Media Sources by DEB Mahapatra, intern]

  Gay, Kashish, LGBT, Queer, Rainbow