The festival will screen 107 films from 44 countries at its online edition. Here is a pick of 6 films by Sridhar Rangayan, Festival Director.

The 14th edition of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, South Asia's biggest LGBTQ+ film festival is organizing the KASHISH 2023 Online Festival from June 16 - 25, 2023 at https://xerb.tv/channel/kashish2023/virtual-events 

June 21, 2023 - HOME GROUND

Dir: Aram Kwon - 2022 | 80 min | Republic of Korea         

In the mid-1990s, the first openly lesbian bar in South Korea, LesBos, opened its doors in Sinchon, Seoul. This documentary follows one of the bar’s proprietors, Myong-woo, whose witty commentary prompts a broader reflection on Seoul’s lesbian scene, and the evolution of the city’s queer spaces over the past five decades. This is a film about a shared sense of belonging, and shared environments of kinship. Offering a rare insight into Seoul’s often-hidden lesbian history, Home Ground reveals the vibrancy and endurance of South Korea’s queer culture.

June 21, 2023 - APAIBA LEICHIL (Flurry Clouds)

Dir: Bobby Wahengbam - 2021| 90 min | Manipur, India | Meitei

The film shows the conditions of the Nupi Sabis (transgender people) in Manipur. It shows one of the Nupi Sabi (played by real life trans actor Bishesh Huirem) becoming popular in the Sumang Kumhei troupe but whether the popularity of Nupi Sabis is related to their personal romantic life and social outlook is not properly known.

June 22, 2023 - RUNS IN THE FAMILY

Dir: Ian Gabriel - 107 min / South Africa / English

When modest tailor and single Indian dad, Varun (Ace Bhatti), is called to break his long-lost white ex-girlfriend, Monica (Diaan Lawrenson), out of a rehab clinic across the country, he and their transgender son, River (Gabe Gabriel), take a road trip across South Africa to rescue her. Varun tells stories of his adventurous past with Monica as he and River jump the border fence and hitchhike in eSwatini with a kind and fiery stranger, Shaunice (Loren Loubser). Finally, they reach the rehab clinic where the receptionist, Hloni (Faniswa Yisa) takes some convincing before finally releasing Monica to the father-son duo. Tensions are high as the dysfunctional new family unit adjusts on their way back home where River is set to compete with his best friend, Ollie (Cleo Wesley), in a once-in-a-lifetime drag competition that could win him his long-awaited gender-affirming surgery, so long as no con artists from Varun and Monica’s wild past with their old friend and mafia man Stan (Rob van Vuuren) get in their way.

June 23, 2023 - WHO OWNS THE SKY

Dir: Sabian Baumann - 2022 | 82 min | Argentina, Switzerland  | English, French, German, Spanish

An activist documentary uses an intersectional approach connecting the questions of the interrelationship between gender concepts and cis-hetero norms with colonialism and capitalism.

The starting point of the film is a series of interviews with activists from artistic and academic environments in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Zürich, Switzerland.

+ LEGENDARY CHILDREN [ALL OF THEM QUEER]

Dir: Rob Falconer
2022 | 39 min | United Kingdom |English
Legendary Children [All Of Them Queer] follows many of the original Gay Liberation Front pioneers of the 1972 and first European Pride March during events over the summer of Pride 50 when the UK marked its 50th anniversary in spectacular style.

June 24, 2023 - SMALL TOWN BOYS

Dir: Gaël Lepingle - 2022 | 83 min | France | French                      

A nightclub employee, Youcef falls in love with the dancer of a queer troupe on summer tour. Elsewhere, a young man perched on high heels crosses the village he is about to quit. In an isolated village, Jonas has an appointment for erotic pictures with a stranger. A diffracted and atmospheric triptych about the solitude experienced by youngsters during the long, slow days spent in communities deep in the provinces. 

More details at https://xerb.tv/channel/kashish2023/virtual-events