Kashish - Mumbai International Queer Film Festival

KASHISH- Mumbai International Queer Film Festival being held between April 22^nd to April 25^th, 2010 in Mumbai promises to be four days of non-stop queer celebration across many platforms of artistic expressions.

Apart from over 80 Indian and International films, the festival has a range of allied activities - exhibitions, book launches, Q&A with filmmakers, panel discussions and of course parties! The festival expects to draw a huge audience from queer as well as non-queer community during its events spread across multiple venues in Mumbai.

Kashish - Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is being organized by Solaris Pictures and Bombay Dost.

About Solaris Pictures: Solaris Pictures is the only Indian film production company that has consistently been making films on queer themes. Its award-winning films like ‘Gulabi Aaina’, ‘Yours Emotionally’ and ‘68 Pages’, all dealing with gay and transgender stories, has pushed the boundaries in queer portrayals in Indian films. (www.solarispictures.com)

About Bombay Dost: Bombay Dost, India’s first registered LGBT magazine, is a standard bearer for the growing confidence and artistic alacrity displayed by India’s LGBT community. Bombay Dost also organizes free fortnightly film screenings known as ‘Sunday High’ as well as other events like book readings and community discussions. (www.bombaydost.co.in)

Kashish - Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is partly supported by UNDP, UNAIDS and Movies That Matter (an initiative of Amnesty International)

Kashish – Mumbai International Queer Film Festival 2010

Centre for Excellence & Research (CEFE)

Ground floor, Riviera, 15th Road,

Santacruz (W), Mumbai - 400 054, INDIA

email: kashishmqff@gmail.com

website: www.mumbaiqueerfest.com

blog: www.mqff2010.blogspot.com

twitter: www.twitter.com/kashish2010

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Kashish.MIQFF

Views on Another Subcontinent

Yours Emotionally
Another subcontinent forum
Jul 3 2006, 07:29 AM

I had the occassion to see Yours Emotionally, a gay-themed movie directed by Sridhar Rangayan at MIT this past Friday.

As I understood it from the Q&A with the director after the movie, such movies are rare in India. This one explored the 'gay-scene' in small town India [in Gujarat and in Karnataka (Shimoga)].The director has worked actively on LGBT issues and felt that he should make a movie to express the dilemmas faced by people with differing sexualities -- and so undertook this project. So far he has screened it in a very limited fashion in India before he came away to screen it in NY, SF and most recently in Boston. He is returning to India to further his efforts in promoting it.

Not really knowing what to expect, even whether the movie would be a ham-handed effort in tackling an obviously complex theme, I was pleasantly surprised by the narrative...and even by the acting. The people behind the movie have managed to use a fairly plausible and even engaging storyline to get their point across...

ananda
This post has been edited by ananda: Jul 3 2006, 06:46 PM
http://www.anothersubcontinent.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5346&view=getlastpost

verbose said...

I saw the movie recently in SF, where it was part of Frameline, the long-running gay and lesbian film festival that coincides with Pride. I didn't know what to expect either, particularly as the title struck me as being rather sappy. I found parts of the movie confusing, and couldn't quite follow the narrative comfortably because of the strange visual effects, abrupt switches from color to b/w and back, and jumpy editing. But I liked the movie nonetheless.

In the Q&A that followed the screening, Sridhar Rangayan was asked about the visual effects. He explained that he wanted the movie to take place in the protagonist's mindspace, and had chosen the visual effects appropriately. That made sense when he said it, but I'm not sure it worked cinematically. However, I'm not a very sophisticated viewer of cinema. No doubt someone who sees non-mainstream movies more regularly would have a different reaction.

I also had the opportunity to spend about an hour in a tete-a-tete with Sridhar (about a week before I saw the movie), and ran into him a couple of times after. He's a really nice, warm, and funny guy, and he's been doing some great work with the Hamsafar Trust. So I'm glad I liked the movie--I'd've felt bad if the movie had turned out to be a dud.

Not so sure about the acting; the gora in particular struck me as being somewhat unnatural. The older couple were terrific.

I bought a copy of Sridhar's earlier movie, Gulabi Aaina, off him. Haven't watched it yet, though. Apparently the movie has run into trouble with the censors in India. Sridhar was talking about it. He says he intends to fight a legal battle to fight the refusal of a censor certificate. The censor board says that the movie doesn't treat its theme of crossdressing "seriously." Sridhar says that what this means is that the crossdressers are shown enjoying themselves, which is unacceptable, apparently.

Trailer on YouTube

Check out trailers on YouTube

Yours Emotionally!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKyT57nXx2U





The Pink Mirror (Gulabi Aaina)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEWPwrAjgpY