Queer film fest helps embrace, empower and break barriers

CHENNAI: Jayanthi (name changed) wasn’t sure how to tell her parents she’s a lesbian. So she brought them to ‘Reel Desires: Chennai International Queer Film Festival (

CIQFF

)’ two years ago. Over the next few months, when she explained why she didn’t want to get married to a man, her parents were more understanding than they had been before. In a way, the festival helped her come out to her parents.

Queer film festivals such as CIQFF are not just forums to debate Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT), they have deeper impact making people think and feel inclusive. For instance,

Aayush Sinha

, 28, now living in the US, attended his first

LGBT

film festival in 2012. “I felt intimidated being around so many LGBT people and sat in the last row,” he admitted.

Apart from helping sort out his own dilemmas, the exposure to the queer-themed films pushed him to become a volunteer and initiate discussions on topics like inclusive workplaces. “Aayush also got the human resource team at his workplace to organise more LGBT events,” said L Ramakrishnan, a volunteer of CIQFF, adding the film festival acts as a contact for those who don’t know others from the community and helps them get in touch with support groups.

Another volunteer,

Bessimon Thankaraj

, said though he’s still in the closet, the stories on screen have helped him become comfortable in his own skin. “When I started volunteering in 2014, my involvement was limited but this year, I am one of the emcees. I used to be introverted, lonely and confused about my orientation but now I am more confident. Last year, I organised peer counselling workshops in Kochi and also joined Queerala, an LGBT support group,” said Bessimon.

The festival also helps sensitise people on issues such as HIV, caste and gender. Karthik U, who has been volunteering since the launch of CIQFF said through the films, the audience and volunteers talk about issues which they would have been earlier unaware of. “Stigma towards people with HIV is unfortunately present within the LGBT community. Movies helped me gain insight into such issues, and I hope more conversations start and people open up to new ideas,” Karthik said.

For Arpan Kundu, a PhD scholar at the

Institute of Mathematical Sciences

, volunteering at the fest helped him understand how LGBT, gender and caste issues are intersectional. “Some films during the review meetings got me thinking how a queer person lives with all the existing social structures. For instance, someone who is a dalit bears the double burden. I also got to know of various struggles of the community in the country and abroad,” he said.