In focus: 12th Bangalore Queer Film Festival

BENGALURU:  Love is love irrespective of language or gender. As people have started acknowledging these ideas, the Bangalore Queer Film Festival (BQFF) 2022 tried to highlight this through movies. BQFF organised at Max Mueller Bhavan, Indiranagar, curated movies themed on the LGBTQIA+ community from across the globe. BQFF is a community-funded annual event with over 60 films, including documentaries, shorts, and experimental films.

This year’s BQFF was all about focusing on filmmakers closer to home. Joshua Muyiwa, co-director and volunteer at the festival, said they sent out an open call so that filmmakers could send their works from anywhere in the world. “The festival’s focus was to curate films with local and national contexts before looking at the international contexts.

Even if we are looking at the international context, we look at the global south like South Asian films before we go into western films. That’s the way we curated the festival. There is a particular purpose. International does not always mean American, French or German. International can also mean films from Hong Kong or Pakistan,” explains Muyiwa, adding that there aren’t any specific themes followed in the film festival.

“There is no binding theme to the festival. It is a queer film made by a queer filmmaker. There are also silent films and films in Farsi, Chinese, and Punjabi.” The festival also had films from Kashmir, Manipur and unexplored regions in the country. “The festival’s focus was also to shine a light not just on big names. We often get asked questions about bigger names associated with the festival.

But what we have found in this festival is how lesser-known filmmakers keep returning to our festival with new and creative projects,” says Muyiwa, adding that the shows ran full house even on weekdays. This year, the festival marked its 12th year since it got cancelled in 2021 due to Covid.

According to Muyiwa, the aim with which the festival began has evolved over the years. “I think the goalpost keeps moving. I don’t know if we have reached any goal,” laughs Muyiwa. Further, he adds, “We surely have gotten better at representing different communities that we know are under-represented. Since it’s a community- funded festival, it is also open to donations.