“IT MUST BE LOVE ON THE BRAIN” “IT MUST BE LOVE ON THE BRAIN” t the 9th edition of BQFF, hosted along with our beloved partners the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan (GI / MMB), we present a staggering A89 films from over 30 countries. Like every previous year, this year’s festival will be breathless, wild, fun, strange and intense. It will put you on social overdrive, because let’s face it: some of you come just to meet your friends. Watch out for our three specially curated packages. One set of films brought to us by GI / MMB, including our Saturday night Centrepiece, Ein Weg (Paths), comes from the prestigious Berlinale festival in Germany. Another package of LGBT shorts from the UK is brought to us by a British Council international touring programme in association with BFI Flare. For the second time in our history, BQFF is collaborating with the film curator and archivist Thomas Waugh, founder-director of the Queer Media Database Canada-Québec. He will introduce and screen a package called “I Confess”, autobiographical shorts from the Canadian Queer Film Archive. This year we have something über special to announce: in 2017 The Bangalore Queer Festival Trust was set up as an independent entity that will work solely for the festival in the years to come, starting with the 10th Anniversay splash in 2019! We hope you will all stay with as collaborators, supporters, film lovers, performers and just generally a marvellously ragtag bunch of travellers in the future! To give you a quick recap of last year’s festival, BQFF 2017 (24-26 February 2017) was held at Alliance Française de Bangalore and the Goethe-Institut /Max Mueller Bhavan. We were thrilled to include a retrospective of the films and videos of Trinidad-born Canada-based artist and writer Richard Fung, who visited the festival. Fung has a long history of making challenging videos on subjects ranging from the role of the Asian male in gay pornography to colonialism, immigration, racism, homophobia and AIDS. BQFF 2017 also included the highest number of Indian features, shorts and documentaries the festival has ever screened. The opening feature, Natasha Mendonca’s Ajeeb Aashiq, followed the story of Khush (a working class transgender man) and Suman (a Bollywood singer), and blurred the boundaries between art and politics. The audience fell in love with the scrappy and resourceful kids in Prithvi Konanur’s Railway Children. We were also entranced by the spell cast by Velutha Rathrikal (White Nights, Razi Muhammed), a film that glistened in the moonlight as 1 it told us the story of Chelly, Jyothi and Manu. Ananya Kasaravalli’s subtle Harikatha Prasanga was a touching tale of the life of Hari, a Yakshagana artist who performs female roles and exists within the interstices of gender identity. The festival also included films from regions that have till now been underrepresented in our festival and in other events. Santa Khurai and Siddharth Haobijam’s The Unheard Voice was a film that evoked the history of the Nupa Amaibi, Manpuri priestesses of the Sanamahi tradition . Oh My Soul! (Kivini Shohe) followed the steps of three young men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSMs) in Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland. BQFF is not only about films but also provides space for queer artists, performers and photographers to share their work. Our photo exhibition in 2017, curated by Akshay Mahajan and Joshua Muyiwa, brought us illustrations by Jen Uman and photography by Kannagi Khanna and Karolina Gembara. The exhibition also featured Chan Arun Narendra’s subtle series Self portrait of a transman: Archiving the subtexts of inhabiting homes, and a showcase of artwork from The Gaysi Zine. The festival was also proud to host the play Mohanaswamy, based on Kannada writer Vasudhendra’s collection of short stories and directed by KSDL Chandru. BQFF 2018 holds a spectacular lineup of films from all around the world in store for you, and two special performances. Grab space on the gallery, the chairs, the mattresses, the floors, the walls, and get ready for a #wazak ride at the festival! SCHEDULE 3 Highlights 9 FEATURES 17 DOCUMENTARY 29 Gi / MMB BERLINALE 35 BFI FLARE 43 SHORT DOCUMENARY 51 SHORTS 61 “IT MUST BE LOVE ON THE BRAIN” ANIMATION 99 “I CONFESS” 103 PERFORMANCES/MUSIC/OFFICIAL PARTY 111 2 MANY MANY THANKS 116 FILM CONTACTS 119 many thanks 3 Schedule FRIDAY 9th march 9:00 AM Atopos, generi teatranti | 2016 2:11 PM Where We Are Now| 2016 (Atopos, theatrical genders) Lucie Rachel Alberto Amoreti UK / English / 9 min Italy / Italian / 1hr 17min 2:21 PM Thedal (The Search)| 2017 10:17 AM BREAK Monachan R 10:32 AM Positive Youtubers | 2017 India / Tamizh / 19 min Leandro Goddinho 2:41 PM Utar Thaguthi Brazil & Germany / Portugese (Physicality)| 2017 / 15 min V Ramanathan 10:48 AM Rarely Normal| 2017 India / Tamizh / 18 min Yaoyao 3:00 PM We Did Not Fall From China / Chinese / 37 min The Sky| 2017 11:26 AM 3 Experimental Shorts | 2017 Tabitha Breese India / Tamizh, Kannada & Echomutation / 6 min English / 29 min You, Me, It / 2 min Bleached / 7 min 3:29 PM BREAK Coco Schwarz & Alina Mann / Germany 3:39 PM Tasty | 2017 Meaghan Palmer 11:44 AM The Source is a Hole| 2017 Australia / English / 15 min Madsen Minax USA / English / 26 min 3:55 PM Rute| 2017 Ricardo Branco 12:11 PM Swarm of Selenium| 2017 Portugal / Portuguese / 25 min Maude Maton Canada / English / 24 min 4:21 PM Kulay abo ang llog ng Gunita (Ashen River of Remembrance) 12:35 PM LUNCH | 2017 Ronaldo S Vivo, Jr. 1:20 PM Piscina (Pool)| 2016 Philippines / Filipino / 15 min Leandro Goddinho 4:38 PM Cocoon| 2017 Brazil / Portugese / 30 min Mohammad Eskandari Iran / Farsi / 12 min 1:51 PM In a Land of Macho Men, The Queer is King | 2017 4:51 PM Life In Darkness| 2017 Dave Carrizosa Ali Raheem Mexico / Spanish / 19 min Iraq / Arabic / 9 min FRIDAY 9th march 5:01 PM Aabar Jadi Ichchha Karo… 7:19 PM BREAK (If You Dare Desire…) | 2017 7:24 PM Malila: The Farewell Flower Debalina | 2017 India / Bengali & English / 52m Anucha Boonyawatana 5:53 PM BREAK Thailand / Thai / 1 hr 36 mins 6:03 PM Turup (Checkmate)| 2017 9:01 PM Snapshot | 2017 Ektara Collective Shine Louise Houston India / Hindi / 1 hr 15 min USA / English / 1 hr 6 mins saturday 10th march 9:00 AM Ardhanariswar | 2017 10:52 AM The Driver| 2016 Sankha Mathew Baren India / Bengali / 26 min China / English / 18 mins 9:27 AM Aliou’s Journey| 2017 11:11 AM Sweet Nothings| 2017 Mamadou Samba Diallo Farhat Rahman Senegal & Belgium / USA / English / 12 mins French & Wolof / 22 min 11:24 AM Maria Adelaide| 2017 9:50 AM The Comet| 2016 Catarina Almeida Viktor Lindgren Brazil / Portuguese / 16 mins Sweden / English & Arabic / 15m 11:41 AM More Love. Less Prepackaged 10:06 AM The World is Round so That Bullshit | 2017 Nobody Can Hide in the Neelu Bhuman Corners – Part I: Refuge / 10min Canada / English / 1 min 10:17 AM The World is Round so That 11:43 AM The Taming | 2017 Nobody Can Hide in the Cor- Daniel Kulle ners – Part II: Kiss / 5min Germany / German / 6 mins Leandro Goddinho 11:50 AM Tres | 2017 Germany / 2017 Fabia Castro 10:22 PM BREAK Spain / Spanish / 3 mins Taste Of Love| 2017 10:37 AM A Time For Us| 2016 11:54 AM Paul Scheufer Rain Cuaca Austria / English / 5 min Indonesia / Bahasa / 14 mins saturday 10th march 12:00 PM Contestant #4 | 2017 Récit d’A (A[ids] Story) | 1990 Jared Joven & Kaj Palancan Esther Valiquete Philippines / Filipino/ 19 min Montreal / French / 20 min 12:20 PM A Leter to the Person I Have I`m a Voyeur | 1974 Met on Tinder | 2017 Colin Campbell James Allen Fajardo Toronto / English / 15 min Philippines / English / 5 min Erotic Exotic | 1998 12:26 PM Final Stage | 2017 Atif Siddiqi Nicolaas Schmidt Montreal / English / 19 min Germany / 27 min Q&A Session 12:54 PM Three Stones for Jean Genet | 2013 3:45 PM BREAK Frieder Schlaich & Pati Smith 3:55 PM Portrait of Jason | 1967 Germany / English / 7 min Shirley Clarke 1:00 PM LUNCH USA / English / 1 hr 45 min 1:45 PM Thoma Waugh presents 5:42 PM BREAK I CONFESS 5:52 PM Ladies & Gentlewomen Canada + conversation with dir. Malini Letre à Mon Père (Leter to my Jeevarathnam | 2018 father)| 1992 Malini Jeevarathnam Michael Langlois India / Tamizh & English / 47min Quebec / French / 13 min 7:03 PM More Than T | 2017 Cab Drive | 2011 Silas Howard Farrah Khan USA / English / 54 min Toronto / English / 5 min 7:58 PM Ein Weg (Paths) | 2017 A Supernatural Premiere | 1995 Chris Miera Kevin Kelly Germany / Gernam / 1 hr 47 min Winnipeg / English / 6 min 60 Unit: Bruise | 1976 Paul Wong Vancouver / English / 5 min Puri | 1998 Arif Noorani & Kevin D’Souza Toronto / English / 5 min Sunday 11th march 9:00 AM Simon & I | 2002 12:49 PM Sisak | 2017 Beverley Palesa Ditsie & Faraz Ansari Nicky Newman India / No dialogues / 15 min UK / English / 52 min 1:04 PM LUNCH 9:53 AM Pinky Gurung | 2018 1:49 PM Spark | 2017 Gopal Shivakoti Aharonit Elior Nepal / Nepali / 13 min USA / English / 6 min 10:07 AM Lady Eva | 2017 Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu 1:56 PM Hezar Afsan Tonga / English / 11 min (One Thousand Tales) | 2017 Asghar Safar & Abbas Jalali Yekta 10:42 PM BREAK Iran / Farsi / 8 min 10:19 AM A Simple Love Story | 2017 2:05 PM 1st Day & Next Minute | 2017 Hnin Pa Pa Soe Sara Koppel Myanmar / Myanmar / 22 min Denmark / 3 min 10:57 AM When Smoke Collides | 2017 2:09 PM Venus: Filly the Lesbian Litle Vorakorn Ruetaivanichkul Fairy | 2017 Thailand / Thai / 31 min Sávio Leite 11:29 AM Un Instante | 2017 Brazil / Portuguese / 6 min Adrià Guxens 2:16 PM Stav | 2018 Spain / Spanish / 20 min Michal Haggiag 11:50 AM Sova över (Sleep Over) | 2017