By Dominick Rodrigues
Mumbai : The KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival celebrated +International Transgender Day of Visibility+ here today with a daylong online program of film screenings and discussion titled KASHISH Trans*Fest.
“This one-day festival of LGBTQ films from India and around the world highlights the life of Transwomen and Transmen, not only their struggles, but their small little victories in finding love and acceptance by families and society. We are happy to be doing our bit to support the Transgender community in India”, said Sridhar Rangayan, festival director of KASHISH.
Four programmes — International Shorts, Indian Shorts, a Panel Discussion and a National Award winning documentary – were organised under this event, where films were streamed on BookMyShow platform for global audiences viewing at a very modest cost with proceeds going to Tweet Foundation, a NGO in Delhi working for the welfare of the transgender community.
The documentary +Ladli+, which recently won the National Award for Best Social Issue at the recent 67th National Awards, was screened here.. Director Sudipto Kundu said, “At a glance Ladli is a story about an individual, but in a broader context it tells about the acceptance and adversity faced by the community from the society.”
Other Indian short films being screened here include: Guptadhan by Makarand Sawant, Birds Of Paradise by Rahul MM, Sex Changed by Ankit Gupta, Wig by Atanu Mukherjee and Miss Man by Tathagata Ghosh. The international selection include Mrs.McCutcheon (USA) by John Sheedy, The Family Album (USA) by Anthony Chapman, I’m Alex (Spain) by Joss Manz & Itzuri Sánchez, Plunge (UK) by David James Holloway & Samuel Lawrence, The Summer Of 12 (Taiwan) by Kuan-Ling Kuo and Sunken Plum (China) by Roberto F. Canuto & Xiaoxi Xu.
The day-long festival also featured a Live Panel Discussion that explores how corporate India is including transgender professionals at workplace and what more is required to create a more trans inclusive work environment and society. The panelists were transgender men and women professionals working with corporates, and NGO representatives focused on skilling trans people to be career ready. The panel discussion was moderated by Anupama Easwaran from InHarmony, a Mumbai based Diversity & Inclusion consultancy.
Recalling the journey of working with the transgender community three and half years back, Anupama Eashwaran said, “One of the first events I attended during my research was the KASHISH QUEER FILM FESTIVAL where I watched this beautiful Kannada movie Naanu Avanalla…Avalu based on the life of the trans woman, Living Smile Vidya. This was also my first solo movie viewing experience and this movie, the film festival and interacting with many wonderful people transformed my life.”
The 12th edition of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is scheduled from May 20 – 30, 2021 as an online event and will feature 150+ films from 50+ countries.
