Touching frames

The lives and stories of people who belong to the queer community don't get fair representation in mainstream films and television.

With the big names in the industry reluctant to ensure that the queer community gets its due voice,   filmmakers from within the community are coming forward to make documentaries and short films highlighting their problems.

Sridhar Rangayan, who made his first LGBTQ-themed film in 2012 called 'Gulabi Aaina' (Pink Mirror), has since been making films about the community. His films like 'Yours Emotionally', '68 Pages', 'Purple Skies' and 'Breaking Free' portray their problems in a sensitive manner.  
"We hope the viewers take home a sensitive story that offers an insight into relationships that are put to test by life's realities and shifting shadows of time," says Sridhar, who admits that his commitment to the community springs from the fact that he is one of them. "I want to see our lives portrayed in a sensitive manner," Sridhar asserts.

Is it easy to get funds? "The resources are hard to find and it is a huge challenge for filmmakers to make films on LGBTQ subjects due to the constraints posed by  industry perceptions, market forces and censorship," he explains.

   There are many like Mujeer Pasha, a writer and filmmaker, who feel that it is the ignorance about the community that makes people averse towards them. Mujeer's film titled, 'Project Indian Bride' seeks to explore the stereotyping of transgenders.  
"Storytelling has been the most effective way of communicating an idea or sowing the seed for something good.  These films wish to showcase people of the community as normal human beings. It is like a wake-up call to people in the mainstream society to accept them," he says.  He feels that positive stories on the community will help society look at things from a  different perspective. "This increases the level of acceptance of society towards queer people," he says.

 Software professional and amateur filmmaker Dolly Koshy, was moved after she saw how lesbians were sidelined and decided to make a film based on them.

"It is only when you mingle with them that you realise that they are ordinary people. It  is just that their sexual orientation is different. But that doesn't make them any less human," says Dolly.

Her films 'Love, Lust and Leela' and 'Love is all you need' give people a peek into the lives of lesbians. "My films are an attempt to create awareness and draw people's attention towards the life of lesbians. I look at filmmaking as a social movement to initiate change for the better," Dolly signs off.