British Council, in partnership with BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, makes five LGBTIQ+ themed short films available for the world to watch online for free, over an 11-day period each year. Between 16 and 27 March 2022, a collection of compelling and thought-provoking stories from countries such as India, China, UK, Croatia, and Panama will be presented. Through these films, the audience will get to know more about the emerging LGBTIQ+ cinema across the world and understand the life and challenges faced by the community with themes including immigration, intimacy, and isolation.
In India, British Council has partnered with The Queer Muslim Project, South Asia’s largest virtual network of Queer, Muslim and allied individuals, to celebrate and amplify the films. In addition to the films being shown online, they will be screened across various cities such as Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kharagpur, Kolkata and Guwahati. The offline screenings are being co-hosted with some of the largest LGBTQIA+ student-led groups across three premier Indian universities. The curation also includes a series of reels and Instagram Live with popular Queer creators and youth media platforms, Yuvaa, We the Young India and Gaysi Family, roundtable discussions featuring renowned filmmakers, and open mics.
Mumbai-based filmmaker Arun Fulara’s debut short film Sunday is part of this year’s #FiveFilmsForFreedom selection. The film, which has already travelled widely to more than 50 world festivals, examines the desire and loneliness of a middle-aged man on his weekly visit to the barbers.
Speaking about Sunday, and the #FiveFilmsForFreedom campaign, Arun Fulara said, “Sunday is a deeply personal film that came out of my own experience of loneliness and lack of intimacy in the urban sprawl that is Mumbai. To see that film transcend borders and touch so many people across the world is a testimony to how similar we all are, whatever culture and nationality we may belong to. The film started its journey just as the pandemic began and has, therefore, I feel, touched a raw nerve in these times of forced isolation and distancing. Being a part of the Five Films for Freedom campaign is a huge honour and deeply gratifying for our small team. While I am extremely glad that people across the world will now be able to see our film, I hope there comes a time when stories like this cease to be a reality.”
The other films on the list are:
– British-Nigerian Director Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s short film For Love, which focuses on illegal immigrant Nkechi and the unique challenges she faces due to her sexual identity
– Croatian comic artist and animation director Marko Dješka’s animated film All Those Sensations In My Belly, which follows the story of trans girl Matia’s transition and her quest for love.
– Panamanian Director Judith Corro first film as scriptwriter and director, Birthday Boy (Vuelta al Sol), a story about parents denying their son’s identity as a young trans man, and
– Chinese Director Hao Zhou delivers Frozen Out, an experimental short film that combines scenes from rural Iowa and rural China to explore anxiety, dislocation and self-exile.
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