TALK http://cities.expressindia.com/grfx/trans.gif Don't Think Straight Homosexuality may be the odd one out in straitlaced Bollywood but finds a screen space at Nigah festival <http://www.expressindia.com/about/[EMAIL PROTECTED] com> Richa Gupta In the Bollywood universe of straitlaced men, chiffon-swathed women and kissing roses, homosexuality was at best a Fire and at worst a Girlfriend. Well, in between Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan did some mock-gay stuff between the sheets of blockbusters and backslapped each other at award functions. The audiences, when they were not burning cinemas, fidgeted, nervously applauded and laughed it off. But they would not remember watching a film called Milind Soman Made Me Gay or Happy Hookers. These are the odd ones that will never cross the hallowed precincts of multiplexes and their 70-mm celebration of heterosexual love. They have found a space, however, in Nigah QueerFest that starts today. >From Chennai to Dibrugarh, men, women and transgender have arrived with their films, "autoportraits" and just anecdotes. Like Simi Dekha, a 35-year-old Assamese actor, who is here with Roses May Not Be Red, a 50-minute film on the life of a transgender. It is brazen, high-camp and inspired by real-life incidents "that annoyed and saddened" her. Two years ago, she went out with a gay friend for a function in Dibrugarh, but the outing turned ugly as people sneered at the friend. She returned troubled and then began making her movie. "The non-acceptance of and the social stigma attached to sexuality led me to make this movie last year," says Dekha. The nine-day QueerFest starts with The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, a two-year-old Filipino film. Over 20 films, nine of them shorts, will be screened on May 26 and 27. There will be India Postcard, a four-minute video postcard on gay life in Delhi and Bombay in the 1980s; Barefeet, the coming-out story of an Indian woman; Lost & Found, a silent film on two strangers meeting in a DTC bus. There are also films from the US (Coffee Date, Loving Annabelle, among others), Canada (Eye on the Guy on Alan B Stone, a photographer of beefcake), and even Israel (Paper Dolls) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Go West). Ashish Sawhny's documentary Happy Hookers, which has been shown at 15 festivals abroad in the past year, also finds a screen here. "Through the lives of three men, it explores the world of male sex workers in Mumbai," says the 36-year-old filmmaker. There will also be a photography exhibition, "Autoportraits", which will showcase the pictures of around 50 people shot by themselves. Apart from discussions and workshops, on June 1 Pakistani poet Kyla Pasha will talk of gender and sexuality through her verses, while Delhi-based artist Inder Salim will read out an imaginary letter by Sufi saint Hazrat Sarmad Shaheed Sahib, who was beheaded by Aurangzeb. Movies will be screened at Indian Social Institute, 10 Institutional Area, Lodhi Road. "Autoportraits" will be displayed at The Attic, 36 Regal Building, CP. gb <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay <http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay> http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay Website: <http://www.gaybombay.in/> www.gaybombay.in Email: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay/post?postID=sF-1WE71anBidHS3GY1SYm 5klKs8kORvsCE-7rTALIhT1GR4Nb5d-rGFtKw58iwvfwc16QBg_UkFzxaeQ6q09Q> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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