LGBTQIA Virtual Film Fesival 2020: The corona virus outbreak and subsequent lock down, has hit several industries, and the among the biggest are film festivals. Now, South Asia’s biggest LGBTQIA+ film festival is coming up with a full-slate of 157 films from 42 countries, making it the first Indian film festival to come up with a slate of new programs for this year.
According to the organizers statement, they said “Considering that the city, the nation and most of the world is facing a crisis with the COVID pandemic putting shut to any large gatherings, Mumbai’s very own film festival – KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival – has decided to go virtual. The ‘KASHISH 2020 Virtual’ film festival will go live on July 22nd and conclude on July 30th, making it the first ever big film festival in India to go online with a full line up of new films.
There are many Indian LGBT movies that portray the love, longing and struggle of the LGBT community very sensitively, and they have been appreciated by the movie audience.
Sridhar Rangayan, festival director, announcing the film festival , Kashish 2020 to go virtual, “We are extremely delighted to launch the registration for the Kashish 2020 Virtual with a full slate of films as well as panel discussions, filmmaker QandAs, etc, almost replicating the ground event. Only this year not only Mumbaikars but people across India and the world can participate in the festival and enjoy LGBTQIA+ films, discussions and performances.”
Celina Jaitly, popular actress and Festival Ambassador of KASHISH sent a message from Austria, “Films, movies, cinema—whatever terminology you want to use, the industry is magical and enormously influential in everyone’s lives. In times like these it is even more important not to lose that magic. Cinema like literature is the reflection of society, and not only does it influence society but has great impact on successive generations. Hence KASHISH has and will always be an amazing platform for raising awareness and mobilizing people to stand up for the rights of their LGBTQ brothers and sisters. I am thrilled and honoured to be a part of this glorious film festival’s journey since its inception”. Seasons Greetings, a film in which Ms.Jaitly stars, is part of the festival line-up.
Some of the internationally well received films are Orlando (1992), Beautiful Thing (1996), Weekend (2011) and Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013) and Carol.
Saagar Gupta, director of programming adds, “We are thrilled that almost 95 per cent of the filmmakers whose films were selected to screen at the ground festival, agreed to screen with us at our online festival.
We are overwhelmed by the response from the filmmakers and we are really glad to reach their films out to the world. This speaks a lot about their trust and support towards the festival,”The slate of films include 30 films from India, as well as films from countries like Belarus, Iran, Iceland, Lebanon, Macedonia, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Tunisia, etc.
The organizers have mentioned that 60 per cent of the income from registrations, after deduction of platform expenses will be donated to LGBTQ organisations in India working for relief of LGBTQ individuals in times of COVID19.