Rights this Way

A still from the film

In 2009, when the Delhi High Court decriminalised homosexuality, Nancy Nicol saw it as a ruling that would have international implications. India was the first Commonwealth country where the British introduced 377, then replicating it in other nations they ruled. The Canadian documentary filmmaker saw this ruling as something of an inspiration for other countries where homosexuality is a crime. In an attempt to aid this impact, Nicol launched a project, titled Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights, with a five-year grant from Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Filmmaker Nancy Nicol

“The Delhi High Court ruling is viewed as progressive in international jurisprudence and has since been cited in legal cases in many places such as Belize. When the judgment came into effect, I wanted to capture the struggle that led to it and the impact it was having, in India and otherwise,” explains the 64-year-old, who then began work on a documentary as part of the project. Titled No Easy Walk to Freedom, the documentary was released in 2014 and has since been screened in Nairobi, Kenya, Belize and several countries in the Caribbean. It will premiere in India at the sixth Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival as the centrepiece feature documentary on May 30.

Nicol began work on the documentary in 2009 by partnering with the NGO Naaz Foundation, and shot for it over 40 days in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Lucknow in 2011. She returned again in 2012 for additional filming when the Supreme Court reversed the HC ruling, criminalising homosexuality once again. While Nicol accepts that it’s a huge blow to queer rights, she believes that the three years when homosexuality was not a crime, helped the fight tremendously. “In that period, the activists built bridges with various stakeholders, women’s rights groups and with the police authorities, educational and social groups and generated awareness on the subject. It’s hard to roll all that back,” she points out.

As part of the larger project, the Toronto-based filmmaker, who has mostly worked in the sphere of human rights for the 35 years of her career, has made several shorts and documentaries capturing the struggle for LGBTI rights in African, Commonwealth and Caribbean countries.

dipti.nagpaul@expressindia.com