A special program by Cecilia Cossio
It is good to start with a positive note, like the Indian Supreme Court 2014 decision intended to give transgender people the recognition of “third gender”. However, the decriminalization of a grim British legacy, i.e. section 377 of the penal code, the crime “against the order of nature”, homosexuality in short, will have to wait until 2018. In these achievements, the activists’ engagement to secure LGBTQ civil rights played a fundamental role, but the lives of the people who have a different orientation from what is considered to be the Norm remains very difficult. The cinema – mainstream or parallel – has not entirely ignored this issue, although until the ‘80’s it had not been at the centre of narration. However, from the ‘90’s some filmmakers started tackling the subject: like Deepa Mehta with Fire (1996), Amol Palekar with Dayra. The Square Circle (1996), Onir with My Brother… Nikhil, 2005) and Hansal Mehta with Aligarh (2015). Of great relevance is the role of activists/filmmakers such as Sridhar Rangayan, among the founders in 1994 of The Humsafar Trust, the first NGO dedicated to the LGBTQ community that stemmed out of “Bombay Dost” (1990), the first magazine addressed to the same community and founded by Ashok Row Kavi. In 1910 Sridhar Rangayan had also founded the Kashish Mumbai International Queer Festival, which has grown into an important event and highly contributed to give voice to those who are often voiceless. The festival hosts international LGBTQ films and filmmakers, narrating lives, moments and difficulties of these “minorities”. Nevertheless and too often – in India and abroad – they remain niche works and events, mainly addressed to their communities.
Against this clear condition of marginality Faraz Arif Ansari’s journey starts, an interpreter who has always felt “comfortable in his own skin”, in spite of having always experienced the society intolerance for “diversity”. Born in 1986 in Bombay (sorry, Mumbai), where he began his studies, he moved to the United States for further education. He then returned to India, where – as he says – “there was a lot of work to be done”. He decided to engage in filmmaking as a child, when he used to entertain his family with little plays and musicals. Because, just like theatre, also cinema is a tool for education and for social and political struggle.
Faraz moves on both fronts. From 2009 to 2011, as an Aseema Charitable Trust volunteer, he used theatre as a form of education for the underprivileged children and in 2016 he was among the founding members of Gift a Meal-India, in support of street children and their parents.
In 2009 he also started to work in cinema engaging in different tasks, i.e. as a writer, screenwriter, associate director, choreographer – for Amole Gupta Cinema and, later on, for Dharma Productions and Zee Television. In 2018 he directed, produced and wrote scripts and dialogues for the iDiva series Dulha Wanted (Looking for My Bridegroom), and between 2019 and 2021 he directed some episodes of Netflix series The Big Day.
In the meantime, he had already made three short films: Siberia (2015), Sisak (Sobbing, 2017) and Sheer Qorma (Milk and dates, 2021). A woman obsessed by a big rat; a “meditation on unspoken, forbidden love“; a Muslim mother in the face of her daughter’s relationship with a woman: briefly, these are the subjects of the three shorts that will be presented in this edition.
Apart from Siberia, that inhabits the space between conscious and subconscious and is dedicated to the dog Laika, the other two shorts have a common theme, which is of concern to him: a relationship forbidden in some cultures and countries. Thanks to the financial support received from about one hundred people who had a bond of deep trust in him, Faraz was able to make Sisak, a short film on the difficulties two people of the same sex have to face to establish a relationship without fear. Though much appreciated in many festivals, where it received several awards, it nevertheless remains a niche film. Then, a larger recognition came with Sheer Qorma, also thanks to the presence of actress Shabana Azmi playing the role of the mother, an icon of Indian cinema who gained great popularity in 1973 with Ankur (The Seedling), directed by Shyam Benegal, who is also an excellent talent-scout.
These achievements strengthened the director’s intention to continue along this line, tackling the issue of “diversity”, but leaving the margin and coming to the spotlight. His dream is another Taare zameen par (Stars on Earth), the great 2007 hit on a dyslexic child. At first, dyslexia did not seem to be an attractive subject, but the engagement of a celebrity such as film director and producer Aamir Khan who acted in the role of the teacher who understands the child’s difficulty, did make the difference. Faraz is determined to make a queer Taare zameen par – the story of a “different” child – and is confident he will be able to achieve this goal if a great cinema personality accepts to be part of the cast, as happened with Sheer Qorma. This does not mean that the so-called “diversity” is Faraz Arif Ansari’s sole concern. In fact he is presently engaged with several and diversified projects, among which also a science fiction film. Nevertheless, the full recognition of diversity should be a central issue for a society and a culture that want to be really inclusive and democratic.
SIBERIA (2015, 16′, English)
A young, modern woman, who lives in a beautiful urban flat, is obsessed by the presence of a large rat that she desperately tries to flush and kill. Does the rat really exist or is it a creation of her fragile state of mind?
SISAK (Sobbing, 2017, 16′, silent)
Considered the first silent queer film, Sisak opens with a T.S. Eliot’s line: “The word within a word, unable to speak a word” and is “a dedication to all the silent, unsaid love stories”, as we read immediately after. Two men regularly take the same local train while returning home. Something happens between them, but remains in their eyes, as silent as many queer voices.
SHEER QORMA (Milk and dates, 2021, 32′, Hindi-English)
After ten years abroad, Saira returns to India to live with her partner Sitara. Her mother, despite not being an over-devout or narrow-minded woman, cannot accept a relationship, morally and socially condemned by Islam. But love is not a sin – this is the film leitmotiv – and may overcome the most deeply rooted conventions.
