Explore the struggles and diversity of the LGBTQ community at a day-long event

As part of the ongoing celebrations of the Mumbai Pride Month, a day-long event of queer programming at the Godrej India Culture Lab will seek to address many questions the LGBTQ community grapples with

A still from Any Other Day, which will be screened at the event

Why are members of the LGBTQ community reduced to sexual beings? Does the word ‘desire’ have a different connotation for the community? How are queer desires navigated? As part of the ongoing celebrations of the Mumbai Pride Month, a day-long event of queer programming at the Godrej India Culture Lab will seek to address these and many other questions the LGBTQ community grapples with.

Presented in collaboration with Kashish, South Asia’s largest queer film festival, and the Gaysi Family, a space for the community to come together and share personal stories, the event has an interesting line-up. The first half of the day is dedicated to films from the festival, where 12 critically acclaimed short films will be screened under three categories — Trans Lives Matter, Queering Gender and Pushing The Envelope. “The films have been chosen to show the diversity of the LGBTQ community and how different identities are part of the same spectrum. There are films that push the boundaries and those that offer hope,” shares Sridhar Rangayan, filmmaker and festival director of Kashish. He is also one of the panelists for a discussion on the realm of queer desires, which will be moderated by the editor of The Gaysi Zine, Priya Gangwani. The annual zine’s fifth edition, focussing on the same theme, will also be launched at the event.

“Queer desires are not just about love, dating or sex — something the community is often confined to. There can be a desire for family, for instance, because so many families abandon a member who dares to come out,” says Anuja Parikh, a member of the Gaysi Family. “There is also the desire to be accepted within your own identity, for who else can decide it for you?”

On: Jan 21, 11 am to 7 pm
At: The Godrej India Culture Lab, Vikhroli (East).
Log on to: indiaculturelab.org

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