Cinemascope, Oct '13
Nitin Karani and Pawan Dhall in conversation with Sridhar Rangayan, Festival Director of the four-year old ‘Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival’, which has pulled up several notches India’s fledgling queer film festival scene
Pawan: What is 'Kashish' all about?
Pawan: How is it different from other queer
film festivals in India?
Nitin: In your own estimate, how does 'Kashish' compare with queer festivals globally in terms of the quality of
submissions? Is it among the top 20 as a recent poll says? Or is that an
exaggeration?
Pawan: What have been the festival’s key achievements so far? Do you count the festival’s fundraising methods among them?
Then again, this year, for the first time,
all the funds were raised from corporate bodies and through crowd funding,
unlike earlier years where there was support from UN agencies and the social development
sector. Several Indian queer companies, organizations and initiatives supported
the festival with financial contributions or advertisements in the festival
catalogue. The 'Kashish 2013' crowd funding through Wishberry was one of the most
successful Wishberry crowd funding campaigns.
The festival also has to develop a comprehensive
financial model for it to be long sustaining. This can only be achieved through
greater involvement by the audience as well as a stronger backing by sponsors. We
are looking at increased participation of corporate bodies and brands in
supporting such a mainstream queer initiative. Also it would be wonderful if
the state government could support the event, as most queer film festivals
across the world are supported by the local government or cultural body.
The 'Kashish 2013' trailer can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/RmZ81clbH04
Nitin Karani is a Mumbai based queer activist and writer.
Nitin Karani and Pawan Dhall in conversation with Sridhar Rangayan, Festival Director of the four-year old ‘Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival’, which has pulled up several notches India’s fledgling queer film festival scene
Pawan: What is 'Kashish' all about?
Sridhar: 'Kashish' primarily is meant to
mainstream lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (queer) visibility through
cinema. For the Indian queer audiences, the festival offers a mirror to similar
lives, struggles and victories in other parts of the world. For the ‘mainstream’
audiences (who comprise about 30%), it is an opportunity to form a better understanding
of queer persons, their lives, hopes and aspirations.
Sridhar Rangayan with filmmaker Kalpana Lajmi to his right and actor Kabir Bedi to his left at 'Kashish 2013' Photo credit: Kashish MIQFF |
Sridhar: 'Kashish', for the first time, has
taken an Indian queer film festival to an international scale and also placed
it in a mainstream theatre. It is very empowering for a gay or lesbian person
to sit in a multiplex theatre and watch queer films on the big screen with their
partner, friend, family or colleagues. It helps reduce the stigma and
discrimination one feels as a queer person and allows one to be in a
comfortable queer-friendly space without labels.
Nitin: What is your view on the quality of
films that get submitted to Indian queer film festivals – 'Kashish' in particular?
Is it difficult finding a decent bouquet of films?
Sridhar: 'Kashish' receives close to 300
submissions and an informed preview team works with the programming team to
finally select around 130 films. 'Kashish' definitely has become an important queer
film festival in the international queer film festival space and being selected
at 'Kashish' is a matter of pride for filmmakers around the world. Having said
that, it is still difficult at times to get the big queer features because of
the screening fee requested by distributors. With very limited resources, we
sometimes aren’t able to bring them to our festival.
However, 'Kashish’s' programming is on par
with any international queer film festival around the world and our festival
programme guide is closely looked at by other festivals. We have also helped
programme a bunch of Indian queer-themed films at other queer film festivals in
USA, China, Sweden, Italy, The Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Romania, and Japan.
This makes for a fabulous opportunity for fledgling Indian queer shorts to be
seen by an international audience.
Sridhar Rangayan with theatre personality Dolly Thakore at 'Kashish 2013'. Photo credit: Kashish MIQFF |
Sridhar: The recent poll by Moviemaker
Magazine was about the top 20 coolest queer film festivals, and 'Kashish' certainly is cool! Within four years, it has grown to become the biggest queer film
festival in South Asia, with the largest number of films and the highest
audience turnover. The four successful editions held so far have screened
around 110-132 films from 25-40 countries every year and attracted a footfall
of around 7,500. This I think is remarkable coming from a country like India,
where till recently homosexuality was criminalized and queer communities were largely
underground.
Nitin: Is the quality of Indian submissions
enhancing or impacting the overall selection of films at 'Kashish'? Do you aspire
to take 'Kashish' on a par with any other queer or 'mainstream' film festival?
Sridhar: The quantity of Indian films being
submitted has gone up, but the quality of Indian submissions is definitely a
matter of concern. At 'Kashish', over the past four years, the number of film
submissions from India has increased. In the first year, in 2010, we received
just about 25 Indian films, while in 2013 we received around 50 Indian films.
However, we only could programme 18 of them, since a majority of the films did
not measure up to even the basic standards of good content or filmmaking. There
seem to be too many filmmakers who are making films with no technical expertise
or even a cinematic eye for storytelling and aesthetics. Having said that, some
of the Indian queer films that we programmed told important and pertinent stories,
right from the heart. That too is definitely a big plus for the film to be
appreciated by the audience.
Performers from Bhavin Gala Dance Academy at 'Kashish 2013'. Photo credit: Kashish MIQFF |
Pawan: What have been the festival’s key achievements so far? Do you count the festival’s fundraising methods among them?
Sridhar: 'Kashish' is now seen not only as
one of the most important queer pride events in India, but also an important
cultural event in Mumbai’s cultural calendar. In fact, many of our audiences in
a post-festival survey mentioned that they felt the festival was one of the
best organized – in terms of both administration and technical quality. To
quote an audience member in the survey: “Films started by and large on time and 'Kashish' managed to stick to the schedule, something which even 'MAMI', 'IFFI' and 'Third Eye' fail to do.”
Nitin: What is your view of the quality of
audiences at queer film festivals in India, specifically 'Kashish'?
Sridhar: Audience demand for good quality
cinema has increased dramatically over the years. While in the first two years of 'Kashish' they wanted to see happy romantic comedies with sexy buff guys, over
the past two years, the audience mainly flock for good quality, hard hitting
international dramatic features or documentaries. There is a definite shift in
appreciation of qualitative content and aesthetics.
The post-festival survey showed that 88% of
the audience were between 18-45 years and predominantly male, about 80%. About 48%
were salaried, 33% self-employed and 20% students. We definitely are looking
forward to increasing the lesbian and transgender participation in the coming
years.
Nitin: Do you consider the upcoming Supreme
Court verdict on Section 377 Indian Penal Code as a risk factor for 'Kashish'?
The verdict could go either way, so what happens if the Supreme Court upholds
the appeals against the Delhi High Court judgement of 2009 that decriminalised
same-sex sexual relations?
Sridhar: 'Kashish' is here to stay for good.
No law change will impact it because we have the backing of filmmakers and the
audience.
Pawan: What about future plans?
Sridhar: 'Kashish' is considering workshops and hands-on
training programmes, as well as queer cinema appreciation courses to assist
young filmmakers. 'Kashish' is also looking forward to expand its reach beyond
the five days of the festival by holding film screenings at colleges and
universities throughout the year. It recently supported screenings by the
fledgling Queer Campus Hyderabad by curating a package of films for them. The
festival has facilitated screening of Indian queer films at 'Tasveer Seattle
South Asian Film Festival'. It will also be holding special screenings during
the 'Mumbai Queer Pride Month' in January 2014.
The 'Kashish 2013' trailer can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/RmZ81clbH04
Nitin Karani is a Mumbai based queer activist and writer.
Pawan Dhall aspires
to be a rainbow journalist and believes in taking a stand, even if it’s on the
fence – the view is better from there!
Good story Nitin and Pawan! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it Sourendra, but the subject of the interview itself, that is, Kashish deserves the most accolades
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