Click to play videoKolkata: It could be a quick fix remedy for all those homophobic men and women who are by their very nature, art lovers.
The first Annual Calcutta Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Film and Video Festival was on for two days covering different genres and aspects of the theme.
In Tuli, a film by Aureaus Solito from Philippines, the first scene greet you with a stark and gruesome trail of ritual circumcisions on a handful of boys.
Breakfast on Pluto, made by an American filmmaker Neil Jordan, tells a story of an Irish drag queen Patrick who discovers that he prefers male company. Later christened Kitten, he then moves on to earn a living as a prostitute.
Now, this is the stuff that makes the cut above the regular fare, stuff that deals with the struggle of a section of our people who's sexual preferences often make way to our coffee table conversation and unfortunately end right there.
"It’s not about explicitness or nudity. Kolkata as a city has been exposed to such things in the past in various international festivals. Yes, there are scenes of same gender affection nudity but it was for the first time such an issue was brought out in a public forum,” said Anindya, the coordinator of Pratyay.
It is these forbidden loves, these gestures, and these interactions in social networks that are gaining ground aesthetically via the visual medium.
This Festival is being seen as the only dedicated, multicultural, gender-inclusive International film festival of its kind.
"The audiences become adult only with exposure. They have to see it and experience it to become adults,” said Srabonti, an HIV-AIDS intervention activist.
The festival based on the theme of Ending Homophobic Violence, kicked-off on June 22 and ended on June 23 at the Max Muller Bhavan.
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