We did not reject Sisak for LGBT content, says WWFF

Following news reports that Sisak, India’s first silent short film about an LGBT love story, was rejected by the Washington West Film Festival allegedly due to its controversial theme, comes the news that the film’s theme or content had nothing to do with its rejection.

Sisak’s director, Faraz Marian Arif Ansari had claimed that he received an email from Ariel Lee, one of the organisers of the festival, that said, “Currently the environment in Washington is very volatile, and having Sisak might not be taken well.”

However, Washington West Film Festival (WWFF) says that no such email was ever sent by any of their team members. “The extent of our communications with Mr Ansari,” says Lee, “consisted of his request for a submission fee waiver, which we granted; and WWFF’s standard rejection notice, which we must unfortunately send to over 300 filmmakers every year due to the festival’s popularity. We in no way provided any editorial commentary on why this particular film was not selected for screening, and we would certainly never make a statement so antithetical to WWFF’s core values of inclusion and diversity.”

When contacted for a copy of the original email from Lee, Ansari said it was lost when his email account was allegedly hacked last week.

Ansari says he has filed a complaint with the Mumbai Cyber Crime Cell about the hack. “I’ve lodged a complaint for my email account being hacked with the Mumbai Cyber Cell branch via email,” he said. “I’ve lost many work emails, including a lot of personal emails that hold nostalgic value to me.”

Meanwhile, the Tehran Film Festival also confirmed rejecting Sisak but refused to comment on any reasons for doing so as it is against their policy.

Ansari had expressed disappointment that the organisers had turned down the film, allegedly stating, “We are sorry but this subject is not suitable for our festival.”