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Pink Mirrors: Exploring South Asian Queerness (18*) + ScreenTalk

Emerging Film Curators 2022

A peach steals the show

A vibrant and daring selection of shorts exploring South Asian Queer journeys of self-discovery, desire, protest and the making of community.

Explore queer lived experience from 90s Mumbai to present-day London in an unapologetic celebration of LGBTQ+ South Asians whose stories are often untold, misrepresented (if at all) and side-lined. 

Presented through a selection of subterranean shorts, the program provides an insight into the hidden gay underground of urban India, humbling solidarity within the trans community and considers how Queer South Asians in London continue to elevate one another in the pursuit of paradise.

Followed by a ScreenTalk with photographer Sunil Gupta, Bitten Peach performer ShayShay and director Shiva Raichandani hosted by drag icon Mahatma Khandi.

Please note this screening includes nudity, references to violence and homophobia, and some outdated terminology.

Film programme

BOMgAY

From cruising to erotic library Fantasies, Riyad Vinci Wadia’s short provides an explicit look at the gay underground scene of 90s Mumbai.

1996 India Dir Riyad Vinci Wadia 12 min

 

Gulabi Aaina (The Pink Mirror)

Heart-warming story of two queer performers and their friend as they prepare for a performance. Banned by the film board of India, this film provides a much-needed insight into a community who are both revered and marginalised.

2003 India Dir Sridhar Rangayan 40 min

The Booth

Two women – a mall security guard and a customer – share a moment of intimacy, but can a burgeoning romance survive beyond the kiosk’s curtains?

2019 India Dir Rohin Raveendran 15 min

 

Peach Paradise

Join ShayShay, co-founder of Pan-Asian drag collective The Bitten Peach, on a journey of empowerment, self-discovery and breaking down barriers.

2022 UK Dir Shiva Raichandani 13 min

 

About the curator: Harry Singh

Curator, Harry Singh grew up immersed in cinema – initially (thanks to his Grandfather) Bollywood 1950s classics (Guru Dutt’s Kagaz Ke Phool and Pyassa), and later 80’s supernatural horrors (HellraiserThe Lost Boys) and queer cinema (My Beautiful Launderette). Lockdown gave Harry the opportunity to explore further and discover new standouts – among many others Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Derek Jarman’s Sebastiane (1976) and Fire (1996) by Deepa Mehta, but he wondered why there was a lack of South Asian queer films on his radar… and did they even exist? After some digging, directors like Riyad V Wadia and Sridhar Rangayan started to pop up and Pink Mirrors Exploring South Asian Queerness, a vibrant selection of shorts exploring journeys of self-discovery, desire and community, was born. Harry also previously helped produce the sixth edition of the queer film zine, Little Joe.

A black logo of Arts Council England
Supported by

Cinema 2