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BOMgAY - The Pioneering shorts of Riyad Vinci Wadia (18*) + ScreenTalk

London Indian Film Festival

A still from Bomgay, a young shirtless man reclines with fried eggs on his chest

Born into the pioneering Bollywood Wadia Movitone family in Mumbai meant that Riyad's early life was anything but usual. 

He grew up to be a fearless and spirited individual and an out gay young man in the early 1990s when such identity politics were illegal in India.

We screen two of his pioneering short films: BOMgAY a searingly explicit insight into Mumbai's secret gay world, shown at festivals around the world, and A Mermaid Called Aida (1996), an early film on trans experience in India, that although dated, presents a unique record.  Riyad passed away in 2003, but his influence on the Indian LGBTQIA+ movements lives on.

This programme is followed by a ScreenTalk with Neeraj Churi (Lotus Visual), Raga Olga D'Silva (Author & Host), Ash Kotak (AIDS Memory UK) and Mayank Joshi (Gay Indian Network, GIN), chaired by Nasreen Munni Kabir.

Please note this screening includes nudity, references to violence, transphobia and homophobia, including outdated terminology, suicide ideation and photos of surgery which some viewers may find distressing. 

Unfortunately, Roy Wadia is no longer able to attend this screening. 

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