Three-day Chennai International Queer Film Festival to start Friday

According to the organisers, the festival features films, short films and documentaries showcasing sexual and gender diversity. As many as 22 films from eight countries have been selected this year.

The short films include Pride (India) by Arun Siddharth, Stars and Freckles (Argentina) by Constanza Garcia, Fado Menor (Portugal) by Salvador Alejandro Gutierrez, Fake (France, 2020) by Alexandre de Villeneuve and An Alarippu (India) by Talin Subbaraya.

The festival will also showcase two feature-length documentaries including Zuhur’s Daughters, a 2021 German documentary by Laurentia Genske and Robin Humboldt. The film chronicles four deeply complex and life-changing years in the lives of the siblings Lohan and Samar, two young transgender women who fled Syria with their family and are now leading very different lives in Germany.

On Saturday, the event will have the India premiere of Blooming on the Asphalt, a 2022 Brazilian documentary by Coraci Ruiz. The film follows the journey of the teenage transgender boy Jack. There will be a panel discussion on the same day on the need for shelter and housing for LGBTIQA+ people. Activists, NGO members and community members will participate in the discussion.

On Sunday, Chennai-based filmmaker and faculty member Mani Shankar Iyer’s Valentine@3 will be screened. The film is an anthology of the stories of three gay men in different stages of their journeys through life and love.

The Goethe-Institut is free and open to individuals above 18 years. On Friday, the event will start at 6pm and end at 9pm. On Saturday it will be held between 3pm and 7.30pm, and on Sunday the timing is from 3pm to 9pm.