Bollywood Brokeback set to sizzle

Sydney’s South Asian GLBT community group, Trikone, this month launches its second film festival, drawing a diverse program of films from around the world to tell the often-marginalised stories of queer South Asians.

Trikone co-chair and director of the Satrang South Asian Queer Film Festival, Sadhana Jethanandani said her focus when selecting films had been on presenting a range of stories.

“We want to show good films, but it’s more about telling as varied South Asian stories as possible,” she said.

“For organisations like QueerScreen, it’s about getting high-quality films together. For us, it’s about finding diverse South Asian stories, even if the production qualities aren’t quite as good.”

There are 11 films screening at the festival, which runs over two consecutive weekends from September 18 at the University of Technology’s Broadway and Haymarket campuses.

“It’s such a challenge to find these films, particularly the smaller, short films. There’s some really obscure stuff in there.

“We have one short film about the mother of a Pakistani gay boy, and her process of connecting with her son’s grieving lover after he’s died. You really have to go and dig for those films.”

Jethanandani nominated the opening night film Dunno Y…Na Jaane Kyun (billed as ‘the Bollywood Brokeback Mountain’) as a particular highlight of this year’s festival.

“It’s the first commercial Bollywood film to talk about a serious sexual relationship between two men,” she said.

“That’s a huge deal considering heterosexual relationships have only recently started to be portrayed in that way in Indian films.”

In a major coup for the fledgling festival, the film’s two leading men, Kapil Sharma and Yuvraaj Parashar, will fly from Mumbai to take part in an audience Q&A session after the screening.

If it’s a success, the festival will also act as a fundraiser for future Trikone events, including a planned Bollywood-style performance to be staged during next year’s Mardi Gras festival.

Trikone chair Alan Maurice told Sydney Star Observer that regular social events provided an important support network for this sector of Sydney’s queer community.

“We have monthly meetings at ACON, fundraisers, and dance parties that usually draw most of our 160 members. Often these people will have experienced discrimination from within the gay scene, so it’s really important to have safe, supportive spaces.”

info: Visit www.trikone.org.au