12^th Edition of Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival commences online today

 

 

The   12^th edition of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, South Asia’s biggest LGBBTQIA+ film festival commenced online today, with a grand opening ceremony at 6.00pm (IST). The ceremony was hosted by TV Talk show host Renil Abraham. The opening ceremony can be viewed on  YouTube  & Facebook channels @kashishfilmfest.

 Link https://youtu.be/PyxjWOddirQ

 This is the 2^nd time the festival has gone online beginning last year because of Covid regulations. There will be 12 days of weekend screenings of films while weekdays will be devoted to panel discussions and filmmaker Q&As. The festival will screen 221 films from 53 countries and is available across India and across the world.

 To register click here:  http://mumbaiqueerfest.com

 According to film maker and Festival Director Sridhar Rangayan the opening ceremony will be followed at 9.00pm by the screening of Film No Hard Feelings at the KASHISH virtual platform Xerb.tv. No Hard Feelings tells a heartwarming story of three first and second generation Irani immigrants in Germany, peppered with a gay love story. It is available only to audiences in India.

 The theme chosen for this year’s festival is #Unlockwithpride, representing the festival’s mission to unlock geographical & racial barriers, and encourage love and acceptance of LGBTQIA+ individuals, and thereby unlock a new normal of hope for everyone, Sridhar said.

Sridhar picks  twelve films to watch out for in the festival. Click on their links below to see the synopsis.

 Narrative Features –

No Hard Feelings (Germany) – August 19^th 

No Hard Feelings, the opening film at KASHISH 2021, is a Berlinale Teddy Award winner that tells a heartwarming story of three first & second generation Irani immigrants in Germany, peppered with a cute gay love story. Available only to audiences in India

Another Self (Iran) – August 22^nd

Coming from a country like Iran, this evocative film Another Self tells the story of a transgender persons’ journey standing up against her family and society.

Advent of Mary (Brazil) – August 27^th

Advent of Mary is a beautiful story from Brazil of a young trans girl’s struggles to come to terms with her sexuality, amidst a conservative family and the Catholic church. The young girl is played by a real-life transgender girl. Viva Inclusion! This film is in competition too for best feature as well as best performance in a lead role.

The Lawyer (Lithuania) – August 28^th

A beautifully sensitive film from Lithuania, The Lawyer (Advokatas) is about a lawyer’s romance with a Syrian refugee who he meets through a sex-cam chat. The film also stars a real-life transman as one of the important character. This film is playing as Narrative Centerpiece. Available only to audiences in India

Love Spells & All That (Turkey) – September 4^th

Lovely locations in Turkey, beautiful cinematography and brilliant performances enhance the enchanting quality of this film Love, Spells & All That about two women who were in love and meet after several years.

Unsound (Australia) – September 5^th

Unsound, from Australia, is the perfect Closing Film since it is youth focused, about the next generation and has a real-life hearing-impaired person playing the lead role of a deaf transman in love with a singer. Available only to audiences in India

 Documentary Features –

A Worm in the Heart (Russia) – August 20^th

In the film A Worm from The Heart, the filmmakers, a gay couple from UK, travel to Russia to speak to the LGBTQIA+ activists there to find out the challenges the community faces. A very brave film, which is an eye opener. The film is in competition.

Canela (Argentina) – August 22^nd

A heartwarming documentary from Brazil, Canela is about a middle-aged transgender woman planning to go through her gender reassignment surgery, and how she navigates her relationships with her colleagues, friends and more importantly her wife, two sons & the family. The film is in competition.

Prince of Dreams (Sweden) – August 26^th

Prince of Dreams is a languid observational documentary, filmed over 10 years, beginning when Erik, a transman, was only 17, tracing his struggles through his gender dysphoria and his love for Martyna, which makes him set out on a journey to question what makes a person a real man. This film is in competition.

Rebel Dykes (UK) – August 27^th

Rebel Dyke is a funky out-&-proud documentary that is a heady mash-up of animation, archive footage and interviews with LBT+ artists, performers, musicians, and activists in London. Waves the flag high up for lesbian, bisexual, trans & queer visibility. This film is in competition.

Always Amber (Sweden) – August 27^th 

Absolutely contemporary, Always Amber speaks and shows the youth of today who are not afraid to own up to their gender and sexuality. Amber, a gender non-confirming person and their best friend Sebastian, two queer youth in Sweden, share everything from dreams and parties to new friendships. Available only to audiences in India

Admitted (India) – September 4^th

Admitted is an eye-opener of a documentary from India about the most amazing transgender activist Dhananjay Chauhan. It is a life sketch of this powerhouse of a transwoman who was the first transgender student of Panjab University.

Information about all the films, as well as schedule and information on how to register, is available on the festival website http://mumbaiqueerfest.com

 http://kashishmiqff.blogspot.com/ 

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Kashish.MIQFF | Twitter: http://twitter.com/KashishMIQFF

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/KASHISHfilmfest 

 

https://youtu.be/PyxjWOddirQ

India Workplace Equality Index sends the right signal for LGBT+ inclusion

By Ranjit Monga

Corporate India has certainly come a long way with participation of as many as 65 companies in the first ever India Workplace Equality Index (IWEI) whose results were announced last month. IWEI is a benchmarking tool for employers to measure their progress on lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT+) inclusion in the workplace, launched by Delhi-based Keshav Suri foundation in partnership with FICCI and ‘Pride Circle’ earlier in 2020. 

 It is an Indian version of Stonewall UK Workplace Equality Index, which has already benchmarked over 500 companies. 

The IWEI benchmarked companies on nine parameters and 21 were named in the ‘gold’ category, among them are some big names like Accenture, Godrej, Boston Consulting Group, Citi, Hindustan Lever and HSBC. These are employers “who have successfully embedded LGBT+ inclusion in their policies, hiring practices, external communication, demonstrating a long-term and in-depth commitment towards LGBT+ inclusion”, according to the citation. There were 18 winners in the ‘silver’ category who have made significant achievements in promoting LGBT+ inclusion. Some of these companies are GE, Cummins, Standard Chartered. GSK, Ford, Gap, Uber, Tata steel and Wipro. There were 13 bronze winners, who have started their journey towards inclusion. Some of these are Crisil, Lilac Insights, VIP Industries and Wells Fargo. 

 It sends out the right signal for persons from the LGBT+ community for inclusion in their offices, thus ensuring that their right to work is safeguarded. Just a decade ago things were vastly different as I found out while trying to make my second documentary film on issues affecting the community. Having canned a few interviews with persons who were working professionals I could discern a sense of helplessness at the atmosphere prevailing in their workplaces, which were not necessarily multinational companies. This was the time just following the death of professor Ramchandra Siras from Aligarh University who was hounded by his colleagues and suspended from his job following a dramatic disclosure of his homosexuality. Some persons had unauthorizedly barged into his home and filmed him. 

This incident brought into focus the issue of homophobia at the workplace and how does one survive in such an atmosphere. I had been seen over the years many LGBT+ persons leaving their jobs once they reached their 30s as queries pertaining to their marital status from co-workers became too much to handle. Many became freelancers or entrepreneurs, also becoming ‘activists’ for the LGBT+ cause. The problem was that how many LGBT people were ‘out’ in their workplaces. I would go a step further and say how many were out at home or in the larger society? Because the workplace is an extension of society. If you are in the closet at home, then most likely you will be in the closet at the office. A friend who used to work in a top IT MNC at that time was one such person in the closet at his workplace. Once when he informed me that some new policies were being implemented for same-sex couples in his office I urged him to make use of them which he declined. “I don’t want anyone to know about me, my colleagues will make fun of me behind my back”, he said somewhat despondently. 

 An academic study of organisations conducted over the last two years by Professor Ernesto Noronha and Professor Premilla D’Cruz of IIM-Ahmedabad and Assistant Professor Nidhi Bisht of MDI -Gurgaon has found that for most gay men and lesbian women the situation has not changed much. They interviewed several employees across sectors in large as well as smaller companies in Delhi and Mumbai. Some of their interviewees said that besides being subjected to questioning, they are even offered marital alliances by their colleagues. They are unable to talk about their feelings, about their partners, their weekend plans etc. “In addition, they are asked to shoulder more responsibilities as they are single and end up being the most hard-working employees. In some cases, salary increments were denied to them for the same reason”, informs Professor Noronha. 

 What was encouraging to him was that within this paradigm they made small but definite attempts at coming out at their workplaces, letting their team leader or other colleagues know about being gay or lesbian by dropping small hints. “It is like they are testing waters to see if they will have support as they just want things to be ‘normal’, not wanting to be singled out”, he reveals. Conditions in the SME sector were found to be quite bad, particularly for transgender employees. The latter are part of another study presently being pursued by Professor Noronha.

“It all boils down to what your boss thinks about you and LGBT persons in general”, says Rajesh (name changed) who is in his 30s and has switched many organisations in the last few years. “One gets isolated if you come out, as colleagues fear being thought of as gay by association”, he feels. According to Rajesh LGBT+ employees have basically three choices. First, to try and ignore the snide remarks and continue to suffer to survive, leave the job and go take up employment somewhere else, or become bolder and face the office gossip and fight for their rights. “Certainly, the situation changes completely for you if you come out or are outed at the workplace”, he adds.

 Amrita Nayak, one of my interviewees from 2010 had at that time got fired from an International NGO, after her boss came to know that she ‘had a girlfriend’. Since then, she has switched to the corporate world, where she says things are a lot better. “Here only one thing matters and that is doing your job well. No one wants to know about your personal life. Even though the HR persons are aware about me I do not face any awkwardness at all and am happy in my job”, she says and adds that as women grow older, they are bolder and hold on to their jobs and career quite well. 

For gay men too, things have changed for the better in larger organisations. Varun (name changed) who works for a multinational says that coming out is a complex personal process, related to the support you receive at home and among friends. “Even though my company has had all the policies in place since a long time, I did not come out in my office till I got support at home”, he says. “Even though our company has an LGBT+ network there are many who interact on it anonymously, which proves that they are at various stages of coming out, so it is how comfortable you are with yourself that reflects in your workplace issues as well”, he adds. But Varun had a completely different experience in another multinational where he worked earlier, and which did not have any policies for diversity and inclusion. “In that company my boss came to know that I was gay and began to question my co-workers about me, causing me a lot of embarrassment. It was distressing for me and I eventually left”, he reveals. But in his new company Varun has been lucky as his company has a strict policy and if anyone discriminates or harasses LGBT+ or any of the other diverse groups in the office, including women, persons with disabilities among others, action is taken against them. 

 “I don’t care if they accept me in their hearts or not, but as long as a professional atmosphere is maintained in the office, I am ok with it. The role of the senior management is very important. If they uphold these policies at every step, it provides confidence to those who are not out that they can count on their support. So, having the policies and implementing them at every step is most important”, feels Varun. 

 Putting in place a support group within organisations is one of the recommendations made in the study by Professor Noronha and his colleagues. A company needs to have a supportive, secure, fair and unbiased environment where a person feels psychologically safe”, he says. This issue is related to the loss of voice of different groups like labour and trade unions within organisations, a trend visible in industry over the last few years”, says prof Noronha. “A group can take up issues pertaining to individuals like bullying, much better. “Earlier, the tendency of a person targeted was to quit as the fight against the management is a losing one on an individual level”, he adds. “In the end what they want is things to be ‘normal’ and not wanting to be singled out, so they can get on with their careers and life”, he opines. 

Having an inclusive workplace also leads to business growth for companies. This has been recognised the world over. Also, people perform better when they can be themselves. But the biggest contribution of this changing landscape would be to enable LGBT+ people, who have long been denied their right to pursue their careers, to finally have secure workplaces where they can flourish and reach their full potential.

Ends 

 First publihed in Globalbihari.com

https://globalbihari.com/india-workplace-equality-index-sends-the-right-signal-for-lgbt-inclusion/