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Tag: Kashish 2021

  • Kashish 2021 announces panel discussion on same-sex marriage rights

    Kashish 2021 announces panel discussion on same-sex marriage rights

    Mumbai: The 12th edition of Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival – South Asia’s biggest LGBTQIA+ film festival, is underway from 19 August to 5 September, screening 221 films from 53 countries over three weekends. During the weekdays the festival is programming several interesting panel discussions and filmmaker Q&As.

    On 31 August at 6 p.m, the panel is set to discuss ‘Marriage Equality – What is the Way Forward’. The topic is especially relevant to the current times in India when the petition for same-sex marriage rights is being heard in the Delhi high court. 

    Speakers at the panel include first openly gay prince & activist Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, gay couple & petitioners for same-sex marriage rights in Delhi HC Parag Mehta & Vaibhav Jain, transman activist Vihaan Peethambar & his wife Rajashree Raju, gay couple from Belgium Peter Strijdonk & Stijn Deklerck, and renowned Belgian author & speaker David Paternotte. The panel is moderated by former Mr Gay India and activist Suresh Ramdas.

    “It is said that marriages are made in heaven and I’m very positive that we will see heaven in India with marriage equality getting accepted and we will definitely win and I’m very optimistic about it,” said Manvendra Singh Gohil.

    “I was thinking about how in 2015 when marriage equality came to the US, it came in the evening, there was a Supreme Court judgment and president Obama had asked the White House staff to illuminate the entire building with pride colors. So I remember going with 1000s of people gathering there and cheering and it was so exciting and I looked at Parag and I said, do you think Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace in India, would ever light up like this. And he said, you know we’ll make it happen; and that’s what we’re trying to do and we hope we succeed,” said Vaibhaj Jain partner of Parag Mehta, both of whom are plaintiffs in a landmark court case before the Delhi HC which seeks to legalise same-sex marriage for 1.4 billion people in the world’s largest democracy.

    “I think for trans people in India we view marriage like everyone else. You want to marry for companionship, you want to marry for security, for stability, but above all as a means for social acceptance from a society that does everything to suppress your rights,” said transman Vihaan Peethambar who married his partner Rajashree Raju in 2019 in Kerala.

    “No one would have expected so many countries to adopt same-sex marriage in 20 years, and now it’s about 30 countries. So, the good news is that these countries are increasingly diverse – from Argentina to Taiwan and South Africa to Belgium. So these countries have nothing in common. Which means that tomorrow if India wants to adopt same sex marriage it’s possible,” said David Paternotte, renowned author from Sweden who has written books on marriage equality.

    “I really wanted to get married and I had to ask Stijn four times basically before he said yes. For me it was a celebration of love, and the thing for me was also important because I’m much older than him and I was concerned about what will happen when I’m not there anymore, so I wanted also to have the legal status, to be equal to everybody else,” said Peter Strijdonk who met his partner Stijn Deklerck in 2005, and they got married in 2011 in Antwerp, Belgium.

    “Hoping yes I wish I can have this as well, but should I go outside India to have this or can I have this in India and now that seems to be coming into some sort of reality,” said Suresh Ramdas.

    The panel is supported by the consulate general of the Kingdom of Belgium in Mumbai. The panel can be watched at http://www.youtube.com/user/KASHISHfilmfest.

  • Mira Nair to speak at Kashish 2021 panel

    Mira Nair to speak at Kashish 2021 panel

    Mumbai: The Academy-Award nominated director Mira Nair will be a speaker at a panel discussion titled ‘Books To Screen – Lost & Found in Translation’, being organised as part of the 12th edition of Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, South Asia’s one of the biggest LGBTQIA+ film festival. The panel will be streamed on the Kashish YouTube channel on 24 August at 6 p.m.

    This impactful panel that discusses how books are adapted into feature films or web series, will also feature well-known Swedish author & director Jonas Gardell (Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves), Sahitya Akedemi winning playwright Mahesh Dattani (Mango Souffle, Morning Raga), and transgender actor & author Living Smile Vidya (I Am Vidya), and will be moderated by author Raga D’Silva (Untold Lies).

    “While the pandemic put the brakes on Kashish being held on-ground physically at a theater in Mumbai, the benefits of a digital festival has opened new doors,” said festival director Sridhar Rangayan. “We have been able to invite some extraordinary speakers at the panel discussion and also filmmakers from across the world at the filmmaker Q&As. We are blessed to have such eminent personalities as Nair and Gardell speak at our panels. Virtual is the new normal.”

    Speaking about her recent mini-series “A Suitable Boy” based on Vikram Seth’s epic novel of the same name, Nair shared, “I think Vikram Seth deeply understands and wrote in A Suitable Boy, the depth of this unconditional love, the friendship between Maan (Ishaan Khattar) & Firoz (Shubham Saraf). For me, it encompassed all kinds of love. We had to do a lot in very little time, but I think you feel this extraordinary drama of their friendship and the jealousies, and also how the fathers eventually bring the sons back together. It’s a beautiful quartet that Vikram wrote and I wanted to do that justice. Life is about all sorts of love, but it is love. There’s nothing to put it in a box about.”

    Gardell said, “I’m 58 years old now and I have been out and proud since I was 15, so that’s almost 40 years. When my first novel came out in 1985, the critics actually wrote that they almost vomited when they read it since it was a gay love story. Time has passed and now when I write my novels, they are mainstream, they are bestsellers in Sweden.”

    Speaking about the need for greater representation of queer narratives, Mahesh Dattani said, “We need more LGBTQIA+ people involved in the arts, in storytelling. We need stories that concern the LGBTQIA+. We need LGBTQIA+ characters in films that are not talking about LGBTQIA+… I think it is hugely important that we also have characters that are there because they are part of a bigger story, and it doesn’t always have to be a personal story. “

    Living Smile Vidya spoke about her book ‘I Am Vidya’ that has been turned into a feature film “Naanu Avanalla Avalu” which won two National Awards, but her main passion is theater. “I wanted to be in the cinema, but as I grew up, I saw theatre has more space and more acceptance and I found my place. Being on the stage is where I feel like one giant tree where I get all the power in the best possible way,” she said.

    This panel discussion is being supported by the Consulate General of Sweden, who is also supporting the screening of two documentary features “Prince of Dreams” and “Always Amber”.

    While the film festival is screening 221 films from 53 countries over the 12 days of online screenings spread across three weekends, Kashish 2021 will continue to engage audiences during weekdays with 10 panel discussions and 42 filmmaker Q&As streamed on their YouTube channel.

    On 23 August at 6 p.m, panel discussion ‘Teach Them Young! – Qualitative Queer Narratives emerging from Indian Film Schools’ is being streamed featuring speakers from leading film and media institutions like Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), Sophia SCM, Pearl Academy, Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI) and Whistling Woods International, which is also supporting this panel discussion.

    Rounding off the first week of panel discussions, on 25 August at 6 p.m, the festival will host the first-ever chat with siblings of queer persons. Titled ‘Unlocking Acceptance With Siblings’ the panel features gay, bisexual, and transgender persons along with their sisters and brothers.