147 films from 45 countries between Ma 24-28
KASHISH 2017 – South Asia’s biggest LGBTQ film festival will screen 147 films from 45 countries between May 24-28, 2017 at two venues in South Mumbai – the city’s iconic art deco theatre Liberty Cinema and Alliance Francaise.
American film Signature Move, directed by Jennifer Reeder and starring Shabana Azmi will be the opening film on May 24 at the festival, which will close with the accliamed Indian gay romance LOEV directed by Sudhanshu Saria and starring Shiv Pandit and Siddarth Menon in lead roles. Of the 147 films, 51 films will feature in the Competition Categories and compete for top awards that a total cash prize of Rs 2.25 lakh. The awards are sponsored by Anupam Kher’s Actor Prepares, K F Patil Charitable Trust, Whistling Woods International and Wadia Movietone.
MAY 24TH LIBERTY CINEMA
Wednesday May 24 / 8.30pm / Liberty Cinema
Narrative Feature – Opening Night
SIGNATURE MOVE
Director: Jennifer Reeder
82 min / USA / English / Narrative Feature / Asian Premiere
Signature Move is the story of Zaynab, an American Muslim lesbian (Fawzia Mirza), who hides two things from her homebound, conservative mother Parveen (Shabana Azmi): her budding relationship with a Mexican-American woman Alma (Sari Sanchez) and her growing fascination with wrestling! While Parveen, recently widowed, tries to escape her loneliness watching TV soap operas and trying to find the best man to get her daughter married off, Zaynab is searching for her identity in life, love and wrestling.
Starring: Shabana Azmi and Fawzia Mirza
MAY 25TH LIBERTY CINEMA
Thursday May 25 / 9.30am / Liberty Cinema
Short Films Package – 47min
DIVERSE, ONE
From trials and tribulations to prejudices and pride the LGBTQ community has seen and survived through it all. They have come a long way and proudly so. Nine short films take us on a global journey of such experiences reinforcing that we are Diverse, we are One!
Thursday May 25 / 10.45am / Liberty Cinema
Short Films Package – 98min
INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE SHORTS COMPETITION I
Seven films about diverse bonding two people form between them that could be elevating, questioning, intense and even lethal at times.
Thursday May 25 / 12.30pm / Liberty Cinema
Short film
HOME
Dir: More Raca
24 min / 2016 / Kosovo / Albanian / Narrative Short / Asian Premiere
Hava works as a chef in a fast food restaurant. After their parents demise Hava’s brothers decide to divide their paternal property. According to traditional customs, the right to inheritance belongs to male descendants only whereas Hava has no right to inherit. Hava must be married and live in her husband’s house.
Followed by
APRICOT GROVES
Feature Film in competition
Dir: Pouria Heidary Oureh
80 min / 2016 / Armenia / Armenian / Narrative Feature / Asian Premiere
Aram, an Iranian Armenian trans-man living in the US since childhood returns to Armenia to meet his girlfriend’s conservative family. Over the course of the day-long journey, Aram’s brother helps him prepare for the meeting, while also coming to terms with Aram’s transition. For Aram, a series of cultural, religious, and national differences unfold as he tries to reconnect with a culture that may not be accepting of who you have become.
Thursday May 25 / 2.30pm / Liberty Cinema
Short Films Package – 95min
QUEERING INDIA I
A collection of five short documentaries about young members of the Indian queer community who are unflinchingly vocal and open about their choices and thinking out-of-the-box to mark their existence in a society and system which is yet to accept and understand them.
– G.H.A.R., BEYOND BLACK & WHITE, ESCAPING AGRA, TOLD UNTOLD, COMING OUT- INDIA STORIES
Thursday May 25 / 4.30pm / Liberty Cinema
PANEL DISCUSSION
PREJUDICE & PRIDE:
A transgender mom bringing up her adopted daughter, two lesbian partners getting ready for a visit by parents, a web series about a gay couple – over the past few years Corporate India has used the powerful medium of advertising and online platforms to kick-start discussions on LGBTQ lives and equal rights. These ad films and web series have deepened conversations on equal rights. Such portrayals have tried to move beyond the sensationalism often inherent in popular mainstream media and attempted to combat stereotypes and prejudice in society. Corporate India is taking the lead to promote diversity in society and at the work place, but is it enough to change societal attitudes to LGBTQ communities.
Thursday May 25 / 5.45pm / Liberty Cinema
Country Focus: UK
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE
Dir: Stephen Frears
97 min / 1985 / UK / English / Narrative Feature
Settled in London, striving for the riches promised by Thatcherism, Nasser and his immediate family live more than a comfortable lifestyle and he flaunts his riches whenever he can. While his brother Ali, once a famous journalist in his homeland now lives in a seedy flat with his son, Omar. To help his brother, Nasser gives Omar a job doing menial labor. But Omar, with bigger plans, talks Nasser into letting him manage Nasser’s run down laundrette. Omar seizes what he sees as an opportunity to make the laundrette a success, and employs an old friend, Johnny – who has been most recently running around with a gang of white punks – to help.
My Beautiful Laundrette was the first British film to openly depict a gay romance.
Thursday May 25 / 7.35pm / Liberty Cinema
Feature Film
WHITE NIGHTS (Velutha Rathrikal)
Director: Razi
130 min / 2015 / India / Malayalam / Narrative Feature
An independent cinematic adaptation of the eponymous novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Manu is an artist in search of a new sky, from his troubled past, in a forest settlement. He meets Chelly, a tribal girl from a nearby settlement who bears the brunt from her own share of life. She awaits the return of her beloved friend Jyothi. Despite their diverse upbringings, Manu and Chelly strike a serene and beautiful chord with each other. Their brief but intense bonding during the five nights develop into a seemingly inseparable one and Chelly realizes her growing dilemma. She wishes Jyothi were Manu or he was she. She painfully longs for Jyothi not to turn up.
Thursday May 25 / 10.00pm / Liberty Cinema
Feature Film
GRINDER
Dir: Brandon Ruckdashel
83 min / 2016 / USA / English / Narrative Feature / International Premiere
This modern gay film noir centres around Luke, an innocent and naïve teenager wanting to escape an abusive home in the suburbs while searching for his sexual identity. When he is unsuspectingly lured by a sexy agent on an online dating app into the meat grinder world of the NYC modelling scene, he quickly discovers that nothing is as it seems. Grinder reflects Brandon Ruckdashel’s personal experience as a young actor coming to New York.
MAY 25TH Alliance Francaise
Thursday May 25 / 2.00pm / Alliance Francaise
Short Film
PLACE
Dir: Itamar Lider Shiri
15 min / 2016/Israel/ Hebrew/Narrative Short / Indian Premiere
She has multiple sclerosis, under the care of her only son, Yair. But Yair wants to move to his boyfriend’s place, despite his mother’s illness. Soon he finds out that sometimes freedom has a price.
Followed by
IF I SAY I AM, THEN I REALLY AM
Dir: Truus Kaspers, Sander Houwen
44 min / 2016 / Netherlands / Dutch / Documentary Short / World Premiere
Directed by a mother and son team this documentary is a nostalgic and insightful journey of six pairs of queer sons and their mothers. They sit across the kitchen table and talk candidly about their coming-out. While sons give a fascinating insight into their journey from discovering their own orientation to gradually picking up the courage to come out and facing the subsequent developments, the mothers talk frankly about their struggle and especially their relief once it was out in the open.
Thursday May 25 / 3.15pm / Alliance Francaise
Short Films Package – 94 min
FAMILY MATTERS!
The support of family can help one survive tough times, but some times this journey is not so smooth – especially when riddles with secrets. Seven moving films that traverse different stories – from starting a family to being accepted by one’s family. They reaffirm one fact that family is what matters!
Thursday May 25 / 5.00pm / Alliance Francaise
Feature Film
DEAR DAD
Dir: Tanuj Bhramar
95 min / 2016 / India / Hindi / Narrative Feature
14 year old Shivam, and his 45 year old dad Nitin embark on an impromptu road trip from their home, in Delhi, to Mussorie, where Shivam attends boarding school. He asks Shivam to cancel his plans of travelling with his school friends and to, instead, accompany him to the boarding school. On the way, they spot a 28-year old handsome model, Aditya, who is a reality TV show celebrity, asking for a lift. Shivam forces Nitin to take Aditya along with them as he’s a fan of his show. Shivam is shocked when his father makes a revelation. The film is a bittersweet coming of age story that inverts the traditional coming out narrative, with the father coming out to the son.The support of family can help one survive tough times, but some times this journey is not so smooth – especially when riddles with secrets. Seven moving films that traverse different stories – from starting a family to being accepted by one’s family. They reaffirm one fact that family is what matters!
Thursday May 25 / 6.45pm / Alliance Francaise
Feature Film
ONLY MEN GO TO THE GRAVE
Director: Abdulla Al Kaabi
80 min / 2016 / UAE / Arabic / Narrative Feature / International Premiere
A blind mother welcomes her estranged daughters to tell them a secret. Unfortunately, she accidentally dies while sharing it. During the funeral, the daughters try to deal with their mother’s sudden death and also work together to unveil her secret by looking for clues from visitors. Throughout the funeral, their own lives continue to unravel, giving room for buried family tensions to gradually surface, while struggling to deal with their own secrets and deep-rooted guilt. The daughters start to question everything about their mother’s life after a peculiar encounter.
MAY 26TH LIBERTY CINEMA
Friday May 26 / 9.30am / Liberty Cinema
Short Films Package – 61min
TRANS TALES
Eight short films about trans people in Asia, Europe and North America focusing on the moments of pain and pleasure in their day-to-day lives. Acceptance is often needed as much inside, as outside.
Friday May 26 / 10.45am / Liberty Cinema
Short Films Package – 79min
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS COMPETITION 1
Life is a journey worth every experience one meets along the way. Four documentary shorts from three continents portray such diverseexperiences of their subjects and even of a filmmaker.
The Best Documentary Short award, from this year also carries a cash prize of Rs 10,000 instituted by the K.F.Patil Charitable Trust, Mumbai.
Friday May 26 / 12.30pm / Liberty Cinema
Short Films Package – 105min
INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE SHORTS COMPETITION 2
Five soul-searching shorts probing for the inherent need for belongingness – whether it is about one’s society, country, family or the body one lives in.
Friday May 26 / 2.30pm / Liberty Cinema
Feature Film in Competition
GLORY AND GRACE
Dir: Flávio Ramos Tambellini
97 min / 2016 / Brazil / Portuguese / Narrative Feature / Asian Premiere
Graça is diagnosed with a brain aneurism that may rupture at any moment. Desperate about who will take care of her two children in the event of her death, she decides to go after her estranged brother, Luiz Carlos, whom she hasn’t seen in over 15 years due to a quarrel. When they meet, however, Luiz Carlos has become Gloria, a beautiful and successful transvestite, who now owns a restaurant and brags about being independent. At first, Gloria is unwilling to reconnect with her family; but as she becomes more guilt-stricken, she accepts Graça’s invitation to meet her kins and eventually realizes that maybe, to be complete, she needs to become a mother.
Friday May 26 / 4.30pm / Liberty Cinema
VIDEO POETRY SCREENING
DIARY OF A CIGARETTE BUTT – POEMS BY ONIR
Dir: Nikunj Rathod
12 min / 2017 / India
A short video poetry series based on poems written by Onir.
The seven poems refer to the seven wonders of the world, recollected over seven moments with the protagonists lover. The poems follow a progression from togetherness to parting.
Friday May 26 / 5.45pm / Liberty Cinema
Centerpiece Documentary Feature
TWO SOFT THINGS, TWO HARD THINGS
Dir: Mark Kenneth Woods, Michael Yerxa
71 min / 2016 / Canada / English / Documentary Feature / Mumbai Premiere
As a small group in Nunavut, Canada prepare for a seminal LGBTQ Pride celebration in the Arctic, the film explores how colonization and religion have shamed and erased traditional Inuit beliefs about sexuality and family structure and how, 60 years later, a new generation of Inuit are actively ‘unshaming’ their past. This warm and thoughtful documentary looks at the challenges faced by LGBTQ Inuit and how a new generation is forging a more inclusive society. It also shows how the growing embrace of LGBTQ Inuit is helping the whole community on its journey to heal the past.
Friday May 26 / 7.35pm / Liberty Cinema
Short Film
PHYSICALITY
Dir: V. Ramanathan
18 min / 2017 / India / Tamil / Narrative Short / World Premiere
Krithika and Shireen are friends who strive for societal recognition of their preferred and lived gender. Shireen drives a taxi to support herself and nurses a dream to be a popular theater actress while Krithika is focused in her ambition to become a police officer. Soon both of them realize that the society and people around them can’t think beyond the physicality of being a male and female.
Produced by KASHISH Arts Foundation under its QDrishti Film Grant sponsored by Lotus Visual
Followed by
Centrepiece Narrative Feature
CHRONICLES OF HARI
Dir: Ananya Kasaravalli
105 min / 2016 / India / Kannada / Narrative Feature
Set in a coastal town of southern India Chronicles of Hari narrates the story of a Yakshagana artist Hari who has gained extreme popularity portraying female roles. The story of Hari’s life unfolds through different perspectives captured in three episodes across four audio-visual interviews conducted by filmmakers Sharmila and Sundar, primarily interested in investigating and documenting his whereabouts.
MAY 27TH LIBERTY CINEMA
Saturday May 27 / 9.30am / Liberty Cinema
Short Films Package – 60min
INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE SHORTS COMPETITION 3
Featuring young protagonists, four short films about coming-of age and coming out.
Saturday May 27 / 10.45am / Liberty Cinema
Feature Film in Competition
Play the Devil
Dir: Maria Govan
89 min / 2016 / Trinidad & Tobago / English / Narrative Feature / Mumbai Premiere
Gregory, a gifted working-class teenager from Paramin, stars in a theater play that brings him to the attention of James, an affluent businessman. The two men strike an uncanny friendship as James takes Greg under his wing, pushing him to discover himself professionally, creatively, and intimately. Confused, Greg must at once deal with the return of his drug addicted father, and navigate through the early days of adulthood. As Carnival Monday approaches and the locals prepare for the annual male initiation parade, Greg must confront James – an act which will culminate in life changing events for him.
Saturday May 27 / 12.30pm / Liberty Cinema
Short Films Package – 99min
QUEERING INDIA 2
A mix of six Indian short films about queer people from diverse age groups and the cocoon of conditioning they live in. Can that cocoon be ever broken? These films don’t offer any ‘ready to serve’ solutions but surely sets one on thinking.
Saturday May 27 / 2.30pm / Liberty Cinema
Short Films Package – 100min
STUDENTS SHORTS COMPETITION 2
The second package of six student shorts contending for the newly instituted Best Student Short award. Diverse in their narrative and treatment, all these films have one undercurrent of yearning to be loved and accepted.
Saturday May 27 / 4.30pm / Liberty Cinema
Allied Event
PARENTS’ SUPPORT GROUP PRESENTATION
30min / English, Hindi
While a majority of the Indian LGBTQ community is still in the closet and struggling to come out, it is even more challenging for the parents of LGBTQ children to be out and accepting. Living within a society still steeped in patriarchal mores and religious underpinnings, families find it difficult to accept diverse gender identity and sexual orientation that is against the norm. Even if they accept their children, they find it difficult to come out openly in society and media to speak for the rights of their children.
However few brave mothers, fathers, aunts and gradmas in Mumbai have come out openly in support over the years. They have attended parents’ meets and acceptance meets organized by local LGBTQ support groups. But there was no formalized support group, apart from a loose network.
Recently Solaris Pictures organized a daylong workshop with 10 parents to focus on the challenges faced by them and formulate an organized support group that can help other parents.
At this KASHISH interactive event, Alpana Dange, facilitator of the workshop and parents share their experience of the consultation and speak about the roadmap ahead for the group.
FIRST LOOK LAUNCH – EVENING SHADOWS
30 min
The first look launch of Sridhar Rangayan’s upcoming feature film Evening Shadows (Surmaee Shaam) – a crowd-funded project that is supported not just financially but also by much love from the LGBT community, parents of lesbian & gay children, from friends and well-wishers from India and abroad. Produced under their banner of Solaris Pictures, the film is written by Sridhar and his partner Saagar Gupta.
Set in a small town in South India, Evening Shadows (Surmaee Shaam) is the story of a son coming out to his mother and how she grapples with this facet about her dear son, as she tries to veil it from her authoritarian husband, and the conservative society she lives in.
Shot in Mumbai & Mysore, the film’s camera and sound departments are proficiently helmed by Subhransu Das and Madhu Apsara respectively.
The film stars acclaimed actors Mona Ambegaonkar and Ananth Mahadevan and proudly launches two new male actors as its romantic lead. It also has renowned actors Yamini Singh, Veena Nair and Abhay Kulkarni as the supporting cast.
Saturday May 27 / 5.45pm / Liberty Cinema
Narrative Feature
JONATHAN
Dir: Piotr J. Lewandowski
99 min / 2016 / Germany / German / Narrative Feature / Indian Premiere
Jonathan’s responsibilities belie his age, for at 23, his days begin and end with caring for his ailing father, Burghardt, and running the family farm with his aunt, Martha. As time goes by and Burghardt’s condition deteriorates, Martha hires Anka, a nurse who helps take care of him, and with whom Jonathan falls in love. While their relationship flourishes, Burghardt’s emotional distance to his family reveals a devastating secret, one which will come to light with the arrival of Burghardt’s old friend Ron. Having learned the truth, can Jonathan forgive his father?
Saturday May 27 / 7.35pm / Liberty Cinema
Narrative Feature
SOMETHING LIKE SUMMER
Director: David Berry
109 min / 2016 / USA / English / Narrative Feature / Asian Premiere
Based on the popular young novel, Something Like Summer is the story of Benjamin Bentley aka Ben, the only guy at his Texas high school with the courage to come out of the closet. Putting up with the bullies and his classmates’ whispered condemnations keeps him from pursuing his dream of being a singer. Ben spends his summer vacation stalking Tim, the handsome athlete who just moved to town. Something Like Summer follows the course of true love over the span of a dozen years, from awkward adolescence through challenging adulthood and heartbreaking tragedy, featuring seven original musical numbers and the artwork of a talented young artist.
Saturday May 27 / 10.00pm / Liberty Cinema
Narrative Feature
TEENAGE KICKS FIRST FEATURE
Dir: Craig Boreham
99 min / 2016 / Australia / English / Narrative Feature / Asian Premiere
Seventeen year old Miklós Varga’s plans to escape his migrant family and run away with his best friend Dan are crushed by the accidental death of his older brother Tomi. Only Mik knows the events that led to this tragedy, and he is suddenly forced to navigate his guilt and explosive sexuality to find the man he can become.
MAY 27TH Alliance Francaise
Saturday May 27 / 10.00am / Alliance Francaise
Documentary Feature in Competition
IN LOVE AS IN LIVE (Canto Alla Vita)
Dir: Turi Finocchiaro, Nathalie Rossetti & Nicolas Liguori (animated sequences)
62 min / 2016 / Belgium, France / French / Documentary Feature / Asian Premiere
Raymond and Raymond are couple. When one of them, already HIV positive for the past 27 years, and the other gets cancer, their struggle becomes a joint one. Expressing their love to their friends, they try to shape a new life, full of the unknown. Their journey sweeps us along on an amazing sentimental odyssey.
Saturday May 27 / 11.15am / Alliance Francaise
Short Films Package – 88 min
STUDENTS SHORTS COMPETITION I
For a long time KASHISH has been feeling the need to recognize the student filmmakers. Each year the festival also gets numerous entries from these ‘future’ filmmakers from various film and media schools around the world. Though these films are fresh in approach and technique, it would only be fair if these can compete among equals and not with the seasoned filmmakers. We are happy that finally a new award category is included for the student short films.
Twelve students’ films are contending for the Best Student Short award. Here is the first batch of six student shorts!
Saturday May 27 / 1.00pm / Alliance Francaise
Documentary Short
ALZHEIMER’S: A LOVE STORY
Dir: Gabe Schimmel
17 min / 2015 / USA / English / Documentary Short / Mumbai Premiere
Alzheimer’s: A Love Story follows Greg and Michael as they struggle with a disease that is actively eradicating the memory of a beautiful relationship 40+ years in the making, and the love that has held them together through it all.
Followed by
Documentary Feature in Competition
NO DRESS CODE REQUIRED (Etiqueta No Rigurosa)
Dir: Cristina Herrera Bórquez
92 min / 2016 / Mexico / Spanish / Documentary Feature / Asian Premiere
Victor Manuel Aguirre and Fernando Urias are beauty professionals in Baja California, Mexico. They are known for beautifying Mexicali socialites. For many of their customers they were a lovely couple, until they decided to legally marry and become the first gay couple in the state to fight for their rights in a place filled with homophobia and inequality. Facing a wave of criticism and outrage from the city council, through their struggle, they wake up the members of Baja Californian society.
Saturday May 27 / 3.00pm / Alliance Francaise
Documentary Feature in Competition
STORM-DRENCHED MINDS (Cerveaux Mouillés d’Orages)
Director: Lhémon Karine
75 min / 2016 / France / French / Documentary Feature / International Premiere
STORM-DRENCHED MINDS is an inspiring story of Hélène and Laurence, two handicapped women who are newly married. It is a story about being marginalized, about autonomy, a search for freedom and its shining message. Rejecting pathos, the film shows lives and their imperfections as forms of resistance in a world mainly adapted to and fit for able-bodied persons.
Saturday May 27 / 4.30pm / Alliance Francaise
Centerpiece Documentary Feature
THE PURSUIT: 50 YEARS IN THE FIGHT FOR LGBT RIGHTS
Dir: Ilana Trachtman
59 min / 2016 / USA / English / Documentary Feature / Asian Premiere
The pursuit of happiness for the LGBT community continues 50 years after activists protested discrimination against “homosexuals” in front of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. LGBT elders recall life in the 1960’s, when “gays” were “hidden in plain sight,” vulnerable to arrest and psychiatric treatment, fired from jobs, and publicly shamed.
A thoughtful look back and an intimate look at the present, The Pursuit reminds us that while the past half-century has seen momentous changes, the fight for LGBT rights continues today.
Sunday May 28 / 5.45pm / Alliance Francaise
Country Focus – Short Films Package – 59 mins
UK SHORTS
Six short films about love and bonding from this year’s country in focus – The United Kingdom.
Sunday May 28 / 7.00pm / Alliance Francaise
THE CITY OF THE FUTURE (A Cidade do Futuro)
Dir: Cláudio Marques & Marília Hughes
76 min / 2016 / Brazil / Portuguese / Narrative Feature / Asian Premiere
Mila teaches drama in the same school where Gilmar, the biological father of her to-be born child, is a history teacher. She is also in a relationship with a young cattle herder, Igor. The film follows these people’s path in the town of Serra do Ramalho, in the drylands of Bahia, and society’s reaction to this unusual story as the trio prepares to form an unconventional family.
MAY 28TH LIBERTY CINEMA
Sunday May 28 / 9.30am / Liberty Cinema
Short Films Package – 58min
LOL
Five funny, witty shorts from five different countries to start the day with laughter!
Sunday May 28 / 10.45am / Liberty Cinema
Short Films Package – 93min
BOYS SHORTS
A package of seven intense shorts exploring the tough and tender side of gay men.
Sunday May 28 / 12.30pm / Liberty Cinema
Short Films Package – 85min
INDIAN MASALA MIX 1
The usually much awaited package of Indian LGBTQ short films, this year includes an accomplished collection of films that are diverse in their approach and themes. From an animation film to a silent film to films that push the boundaries questioning sex, sexuality and sexual orientation, these films mark the coming-of-age of Indian queer cinema.
Here is the first part of the package with five Indian shorts: PHYSICALITY, THE CLARINETS, SELFHOOD, AARSA, THE FISH CURRY
Sunday May 28 / 2.30pm / Liberty Cinema
Short Film
IT LOOKS LIKE WE ARE ALONE (Izgleda Da Smo Sami)
Dir: Katarina Koljević
18 min / 2015 / Serbia / Serbian / Narrative Short / Asian Premiere
Djordje has to choose between his mask and his real face. He has to figure out how to deal with what he feels. Ognjen chose he will fight for his life and his love. Everything changes when reality crushes between them.
Followed by
Centerpiece Narrative Feature
HANDSOME DEVIL
Dir: John Butler
95 min / 2016 / Ireland / English / Narrative Feature / Asian Premiere
Ned is a loner resigned to his status as the school outsider and the constant insinuations about his orientation. Everything changes with the arrival of his new roommate Conor, a star player in the rugby team, and English teacher Dan Sherry whose presence evokes The Dead Poets Society as he asks the boys: “If you spend your whole life being someone else, who is going to be you?”
Sunday May 28 / 4.30pm / Liberty Cinema
Short Films Package
INDIAN MASALA MIX 2
The usually much awaited package of Indian LGBTQ short films, this year includes an accomplished collection of films that are diverse in their approach and themes. From an animation film to a silent film to films that push the boundaries questioning sex, sexuality and sexual orientation, these films mark the coming-of-age of Indian queer cinema.
Presented here is the second part of the package with three Indian shorts: CHUDALA, GODDESS, SISAK
Sunday May 28 / 7.30pm / Liberty Cinema
CLOSING & AWARD CEREMONY
Sunday May 28 / 7.35pm / Liberty Cinema
Closing Film
LOEV
Dir: Sudhanshu Saria
92 min / 2015 / India / Hindi, English / Narrative Feature
When hot shot, Wall Street dealmaker Jai thinks of putting some pleasure into his 48 hour business trip to Mumbai, Sahil, his music-producer friend drops everything, including his reckless partner Alex, to help him execute the perfect getaway. Hiking the hills and canyons of Maharashtra, amidst half-attempted conversations and sudden silences, business calls and old jokes, the friends discover there is more than just time-zones keeping them apart. Things take another turn when Alex shows up with his new partner, throwing up old conflicts and bringing unanswered questions to the fore.
MAY 27TH Alliance Francaise
Sunday May 28 / 10.00am / Alliance Francaise
Documentary Feature
LANDSCAPES
Dir: Vincent Fournier & Philipp Baben Der Erde
52 min / 2016 / France, Thailand / Thai / Documentary Feature / Asian Premiere
Four different stories of a small group of transgender friends living in rural areas , North East of Thailand (Isan). Their daily life is made of basic repetitive things: eating, sleeping, working, partying, dreaming and coping with that peculiar feeling that they will never be able to live their life fully, never reach any level of happiness. A hard fate, for sure, but accepting it and agreeing to tell us what it means – even in a country like Thailand, where everybody says it’s easier to be accepted as a transgender (a false affirmation) – reveals extraordinary characters whose personal balance is always at risk. Sad but true, these stories are nevertheless also very positive as the message brought by these universal cameos is so powerful and sincere that you can only be touched.
Sunday May 28 / 11.15am / Alliance Francaise
Short Films Package – 77 min
ASIA PACIFIC SHORTS
KASHISH MIQFF is proud to be a member of Asia Pacific Queer Film Festival Alliance – a network of seventeen queer film festivals throughout the Asia Pacific that aims to nurture the amazing queer films being made in the region.
Sunday May 28 / 1.00pm / Alliance Francaise
Documentary Short
HELL OR HIGH WATER
Dir: Asurf Oluseyi
32 min / 2016 / Nigeria / English / Narrative Short / Indian Premiere
Pastor Gbolahan is loved and adored by the people around him. Things change for him when he confronts a hidden truth about himself – a truth that could make or break him psychologically.
Followed by
Short Films Package – 70 min
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS COMPETITION 2
The second program of documentary shorts nominated in competition, focus on the acceptance of its queer subjects in their own homelands. The Best Documentary Short award, from this year also carries a cash prize of Rs 10,000 instituted by the K.F. Patil Charitable Trust, Mumbai.
Sunday May 28 / 3.00pm / Alliance Francaise
Documentary Feature
LISTEN TO ME: UNTOLD STORIES BEYOND HATRED
Dir: Gagik Ghazareh
76 min / 2016 / Armenia, Georgia / Armenian / Documentary Feature / Asian Premiere
In 2012, after the explosion at a local LGBT friendly pub in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia and the attacks on the Diversity Parade, hate crime for the LGBT Community has been gaining a momentum and is continuing doing so to this date. 10 representatives of Armenian LGBT community braved to come out of the closet and talk about their experiences in front of the camera, in a country where majority of population is against giving them any rights.
Sunday May 28 / 4.30pm / Alliance Francaise
Short Films Package – 36min
DECODING DRAG
Drag is not just about donning outrageous make-up and stilettos. It requires much more than that. Most importantly to be comfortable in the skin that one is in. A mixed package about the glitterati and grit that transforms one into a purrrfect drag queen!
Followed by
WE DID NOT FALL FROM THE SKY
Dir: Tabs Breese & Georgia Oakley
26 min / 2017 / India, UK / Kannada, Tamil, English / Documentary Short / World Premiere
A coming-of-age documentary following the lives of Pratiksha, Shalu and Purushi, three of Bangalore’s colourful, complicated LGBTQI community members struggling to find their place in contemporary Indian society, often via the only means of making a living available to them.
Sunday May 28 / 5.45pm / Alliance Francaise
Panel Discussion
EMERGING FILMMAKERS’ INTERFACE
Since its debut in 2010, KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival has provided a platform for emerging filmmakers who make films on queer themes with great passion but greater resource crunch and against many odds. The festival provides a springboard to them to showcase their films on an international scale. For many filmmakers KASHISH remains the only avenue to showcase their queer films to a larger mainstream audience in the country.
At this moderated Filmmakers’ Interface, a panel of emerging women filmmakers speak about their joy, anxiety, passion and glory of taking those baby steps into filmdom.
