LGBT film festival kick starts second edition in Mumbai

India’s first mainstream LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) film festival just kick-started its second edition in the city yesterday. Kashish — Mumbai International Queer Film Festival 2011— is screening 125 films, from across 22 countries, from May 25-29, at Alliance Francaise and a city multiplex.

Spotted on the red carpet for its opening ceremony were filmmakers Pooja Bhatt and Onir, theatre veteran Alyque Padamsee, actors Kapil Sharma, Samir and Neelam Soni, and Achint Kaur, among others. While Bollywood has stood up in support of the fest, filmmakers across the world are also descending here to show solidarity.

Festival director Sridhar Rangayan pointed out that Kashish has come to be associated with India’s Pride movement after the Delhi High Court’s landmark verdict on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. “The festival offers cinema as a means to understand what being queer means today. LGBT film fests across the world get tremendous support, and we realised we needed this fest to have a better understanding of the queer point of view,” he explains.

On the second day today, Kashish opens with a short film package titled Rainbow Warriors with five extraordinary stories of ordinary people — a gay policeman in Constable 027, gender binary persons in Genderbusters, two transgenders from Tamil Nadu in Creatures, and a eunuch trying to make it big in a corporate company in I am a Woman Too. A lesbian themed feature, Bloomington, is another highlight.

A new section — Boo to Bullying — will focus on the issue through the films Bullycides and Bullied. A highlight also includes a panel discussion on ‘Bullying and Homophobia in Colleges and at Workplace’ with filmmakers Rikki Beadle-Blair and Georgette Okey from the UK interacting with activists and audiences from India.
While there are films underlining issues of homosexuality and homophobia, the fest also has short films highlighting bisexuality for the first time. Apart from documentaries on transgenders, the fest includes a ‘Red Ribbon’ package on HIV/AIDS. Kashish will also witness a special evening with ‘Parents of Queers’ with a film screening on Saturday. Apart from several shorts from India, this time the country focus is on a bunch of films from Israel.