Post

Come January and the entire Mumbai is painted rainbow colours with the Mumbai Queer Pride Month activities, across the town by various organisations and community groups, leading upto the Mumbai Queer Pride March on Saturday January 31st 3-5pm at August Kranti Maidan. KASHISH Pride Film Festival, a part of the Mumbai Queer Pride collective, is kicking off its celebration of the month with a LGBTQ film screening at Sophia College for Women on Friday January 9th between 1-3.30pm at the college’s convention centre. Titled ‘KASHISH Forward @ Sophia’, the event will showcase 7 short films by emerging filmmakers that have won awards or acclaim at the annual festival. They capture the diverse queer experiences across the LGBTQ+ spectrum in today’s society. These are stories filled with hope, resilience, and positive endings. Films to be screened are: MAKEUP MY SHIELD (Marathi, dir: Kunal Vijaykar), TUTTI FRUTTI CAKE (Hindi, dir: Rohit Prajapati), THE WITCH OF VIHAR LAKE (Marathi, dir: Joey Kaushik), PROJECT PRIYO (Assamese, Bengali, Malayalam, Hindi, dir: Shoi), HOLY CURSE (English, Hindi, dir: Snigdha Kapoor), JASMINE THAT BLOOMS IN AUTUMN (Bengali, dir: Chandradeep Das), BECAUSE (Hindi, English, dir: Sunita Malpani) While ‘Makeup my Shield’ is a music video about a trans Lavani dancer and how she uses makeup as her shield, ‘The Witch of Vihar Lake’ is about conservation of environment and a witch. This was a co-winner of the Ismat Chughtai Award for Best Woman Filmmaker, along with ‘Project Priyo’, a documentary amplifying the voices and experiences of queer and trans* individuals in India, highlighting intersections of caste, religion, and marginalization. ‘Tutti Frutti Cake’ shows the strength of a ‘family of choice’ with LGBTQ persons sharing a household, and ‘Because’ shows a beautiful relationship between a visually impaired guy and his closeted friend. ‘Jasmine That Blooms in Autumn’, winner of Best Indian Narrative Short award, is a subtle and evocative relationship between two women in a shelter home for the elderly. Highlight of the event is the short film ‘Holy Curse’, which was in consideration for Best Live Action Short for this year’s Academy Awards. The film follows an 11-year-old's gender identity struggle in India, facing family attempts to cure a perceived curse. The event is open to college students and everyone else too by registering online or at the venue with a nominal registration fee. Presented by KASHISH Arts Foundation and Mumbai Queer Pride alongwith Sophia Queer Collective (SQC), Depts. of Education (Sophia College for Women) and Sociology (Sophia Jr. College). Link to register for the event is tinyurl.com/KFSophia