Queering Kolkata

The fundamental problem when one tries discuss homophobia in the mainstream society is negotiating the complexities associated. It’s one thing to spoon-feed some unfortunate realities of the homosexual persuasion to a mainstream audience that likely had not given it any prior thought,and quite the other to raise pertinent questions. Are We Talking Straight?,Kolkata’s sole entry at the 2009 Nigah queer film festival at Delhi ,thankfully,manages the latter. Not everything is presented in an entirely digestible televised light where lifelong struggles are battled and won with the aid of cinematic props and well placed speeches in this short film made by a bunch of Kolkata youngsters to. Its straight forward interview format manages to hold the mirror,and does so without any glaring agenda.

The 35 minutes film is an outcome of a collective effort of Anindya Shankar Das,Anirban Ghosh,Prachi Tulshan,Soupayan and Sana who now study in colleges in Kolkata,Pune,Delhi and Ahmedabad.  They were a part of the Positive Spaces Campaign’ in Kolkata to engage college students in a six month long human rights workshop,where they will go through intensive training workshops on human rights,protest theatre,poster making and photography and use tools from these to develop ideas and practices for making their own campuses Positive Spaces through simple and innovative processes.