Queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) themed films from countries where it’s a challenge to make such films and from diverse places like Iran, Uganda, Serbia, Slovakia, Pakistan and Morocco will be screened at the Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival 2013.
The fourth edition of the festival with the theme ‘Towards Change’ will showcase a host of stories documenting the struggle, trauma and happiness of LGBT persons of the world in films like ‘Vito’, ‘United in Anger’, ‘Call Me Kuchu’, ‘Hide & Seek’, ‘Invisible Men’, ‘Not a Man in Sight’ and from India ...’And The Unclaimed’.
With clearance from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Kashish festival films will be screened in a mainstream theatre in Mumbai from May 22 to 26.
With 132 films from 40 countries, 12 of them from China, the ‘country focus’ this year, the festival pushes boundaries.
The international jury comprises filmmaker Aruna Raje, Bollywood actor and model Simone Singh, theatre director Quasar Thakore Padamsee, author and poet Jerry Pinto and Iris Prize festival director Berwyn Rowlands.
Best Narrative Feature Film wins a cash award of Rs 30,000 and Best Indian Short Film wins a cash prize of Rs 20,000, both sponsored by Bollywood actor Anupam Kher and his acting school ‘Actor Prepares’. The Best Indian queer short film at Kashish gets to compete for the Iris Prize in UK which carries a cash prize of 25,000 pounds.
The closing film at the festival is Rituparno Ghosh’s ‘Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish’.
