Guwahati: British Council has launched the seventh edition of Five Films For Freedom, the world’s largest LGBTIQ+ digital campaign, where audiences can watch the five films online based on LGBTIQ.
The festival has included an Indian film – ‘Bodies of Desire’, directed by Varsha Panikar and Saad Nawab, to feature in the Five Films For Freedom.
The movie works as the basis for a visual, poetic film capturing four sets of lovers in a sensual celebration of genderless love and desire.
Especially for Indian audiences, the Five Films will also be streamed on Jio Cinema, one of India’s leading video on-demand streaming services. This year, the campaign further addresses the language barrier typically associated with international content, by providing subtitles in local languages such as Hindi.
Over 15 million people from more than 200 countries have viewed the Five Films For Freedom programme since its launch in 2015.
At the launch, Jonathan Kennedy, Director Arts India, British Council, said, “The Five Films For Freedom campaign continues to gather a wider audience and deeper engagement with people across the world. We are glad that we have partners with whom we share our purpose of achieving greater inclusion and solidarity for the LGBTIQ+ community.”
The five films includes:
- Bodies of Desire: An Indian film directed by Varsha Panikar and multi-award-winner Saad Nawab, uses Indian poet Panikar’s work as the basis for a visual, poetic film capturing four sets of lovers in a sensual celebration of genderless love and desire.
- Land of the Free: Ullgren’s tense Swedish drama follows the fictionalDavid and friends as they celebrate his birthday with a nightly swim at the beach. The good mood swiftly changes after two straight couples walk by and laugh – was the laughter directed at them, or something else? Who owns the truth of exactly what happened?
- Pure: It is the fictional debutfrom2020 Directors Guild of America Student Film Award winner Natalie Jasmine Harris, centring on a young Black girl grappling with her queer identity and ideas of ‘purity’.
- Trans Happiness is Real: A moving documentary from first-time filmmaker Quinton Baker – sees transgender activists take to the streets of Oxford, England to fight anti-trans sentiments using the power of graffiti and street art.
- Victoria: The film follows a bittersweet reunion between a trans woman and her ex, sparking tension and long buried resentment. It is a Spanish movie.
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