Sonali Gulati is an Indian American independent filmmaker, feminist, grass-roots activist, and educator.
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of June in the town of Annecy, France. Initially occurring every two years, the festival became an annual event in 1998. It is one of the four international animated film festivals sponsored by the International Animated Film Association.
Kireet Khurana is an Indian filmmaker, animator, and ad-film director. He is known for have received 6 President's National Film Awards for his contribution to the animation industry. He is the director of Climb Media, a company started by his father, filmmaker Bhimsain in the 70s. Apart from feature films and documentaries, he has also directed and produced 500+ ad films.
Tara Deshpande is an Indian actress, writer, former model and MTV VJ. Tara hosted a show called Kab Kyon Kahaan on Zee TV, along with Parth and then with Vinay Jain in the early 1990s. She appeared in several acclaimed films such as Sudhir Mishra's Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin and Kaizad Gustad's Bombay Boys. Since her marriage to an American citizen and moving to Boston in 2001, she lives in the Boston area. Her husband is a graduate of Harvard Business School and is in finance. Tara published her first book at the age of 23, Fifty and Done (HarperCollins). Before entering the world of movies she was a model and MTV VJ and a regular on the Mumbai stage. She played Begum Sumroo in Alyque Padamsee's play of the same name. Her book, A Sense for Spice: Recipes and Stories from a Konkan Kitchen was published in 2012 and Indian Sense of Salad in 2018. She travels between NYC and Mumbai.
The KASHISH Pride Film Festival is an annual LGBTQ event that has been held in Mumbai, India, since 2010. The film festival screens gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer films from India and around the world. It is voted as one of the top five LGBT film festivals in the world.
Riyad Vinci Wadia was an Indian independent filmmaker from Bombay, known for his short film, BOMgAY (1996), possibly the very first gay themed movie from India. Born into the filmmaking Wadia family, he inherited the production company Wadia Movietone which is known for the Fearless Nadia movies which are one of their kind in the superwoman and stunt genre when other movies of their time usually portrayed women in submissive roles. Wadia is also known for his award-winning documentary on Nadia, Fearless: The Hunterwali Story (1993), which was written about in Time magazine and made a name for Riyad at the very outset of his brief but impactful career.
India has a long and ancient tradition of culture associated with the LGBTQ community, with many aspects that differ markedly from modern liberal western culture.
Humsafar Trust is an NGO in Mumbai that promotes LGBT rights. Founded by Ashok Row Kavi, Suhail Abbasi, and Sridhar Rangayan in 1994, it is one of the largest and most active of such organisations in India. It provides counselling, advocacy and healthcare to LGBT communities and has helped reduce violence, discrimination and stigma against them. Humsafar Trust is the convenor member of Integrated Network for Sexual Minorities (INFOSEM).
Pratim D. Gupta is an Indian journalist, film critic, screenwriter and film director. He reviewed films for The Telegraph newspaper and later for online platform Film Companion. His first film as writer-director is Paanch Adhyay, starring Priyanshu Chatterjee and Dia Mirza. His subsequent films Shaheb Bibi Golaam and Maacher Jhol have been big box office hits besides being critically acclaimed.
White Paper is a 2010 Iranian animated short film about LGBT rights and homophobia, directed by Seyed Mohsen Pourmohseni Shakib. It is director's debut short animation.
Betu Singh was a lesbian rights activist, born in an Army family in Kolkata. She set up the Sangini Trust, an NGO based in Delhi under the umbrella of the Naz Foundation, in 1997 to fight for lesbian rights. The NGO works for women attracted to women and individuals dealing with their gender identity, providing emergency response services to LBT individuals facing rights violations. Sangini is the oldest non-governmental organization in India to reach out to LBT persons and one of the few registered lesbian organisations in India.
Sisak (2017) is a short film, starring Jitin Gulati and Dhruv Singhal. It was written and directed by Faraz Arif Ansari and is billed as India's first silent queer love story. The trailer was launched by Sonam Kapoor on 30 January on Twitter. It has won 59 international awards at various film festivals.
The Delhi International Queer Theater and Film Festival (DIQTFF), is a queer cultural festival curating films, plays, talks and performances. It is organised by a queer collective in Delhi called Harmless Hugs. The film festival is intended to connect with larger diaspora of the Indian LGBTQ struggle for equal human rights and to reach out to masses via omnipotence of Media, Theatre and Cinema. Movie screenings and plays are well complemented by a round of panel discussions and debates, including some of the biggest names from the Indian LGBTQ Movement. Discussions around tumultuous territories of politics, gender disparity, coming out and involvement of families and more will also be a part of this two-day event, that is happening every December since its initiation in 2015.
Evening Shadows is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Sridhar Rangayan. The film stars Mona Ambegaonkar, Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, Devansh Doshi, Arpit Chaudhary, Yamini Singh, Abhay Kulkarni, Veena Nair, Kala Ramnathan, Disha Thakur, Sushant Divgikar and Faredoon Bhujwala.
LGBT Pride marches have been held in the Indian state of Gujarat in various cities since 2013. The first LGBT pride march was held in Surat on 6 October 2013. Since then, pride march in the state has been held in Ahmedabad and Vadodara.
Roobha is a 2018 Canadian film directed and written by Lenin M. Sivam. It was produced by Warren Sinnathamby under the banner of Next Productions and stars Amrit Sandhu and Antonythasan Jesuthasan. It is based on a story by Antonythasan Jesuthasan, who writes under the pseudonym Shoba Sakthi. The film explores the harsh realities faced by a young South-Asian trans-woman who struggles to make a living in Toronto after she is ostracized by her family.
Wade is an Indian animated short film written and directed by Upamanyu Bhattacharyya and Kalp Sanghvi. It follows a group of climate change refugees in Kolkata, India, as they are attacked by an ambush of Royal Bengal Tigers. It imagines futures around sea level rise, global warming, ecological disruption and mass migration.
Antharam is a 2022 Indian Malayalam language film directed by P. Abhijith. The Film is about the inner conflicts, warmth, trauma and joyous moments in the lives of a trans woman, a teenage girl and a man living under the same roof.
Firoj Alam is a Bengali-language drama film produced by Gunjan Goel under the banner of Hashtag Films LLP. The film is categorised under the genre of love, social issues, LGBTQ+, and drama. The earlier name of the film was Sanwri.
