Bhubaneswar: A secrening of queer movies was organised by Bhubaneswar Pride as a part of a social outreach programme about LGBTQIA+ community at Actor’s Studio in Niladri Vihar here Saturday evening.
Notably, the acronym LGBTQIA+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual. The ‘+’ includes all other queer identities that have not been mentioned, such as pansexuality and polysexuality.
It may be mentioned here that September 1 Bhubaneswar will witness its first Pride March. Termed as a pre-Pride event, two movies screened –XXY, a Spanish flick, and Pride— were screened at the event.
XXY is a story of an intersex individual who struggles with the prejudices and pressure of a society where gender is only considered binary. Being non-binary, the protagonist Alex fights for her identity and social acceptance, to establish in the end that one need not give up their existence and essence because of the stereotypes in a stigmatised world.
Pride, a British movie, is set in the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher came to power and crushed the biggest strike by the union of miners in England. In such a political climate when miners were struggling for their rights and LGBTQ community was struggling for their own, both of them decided to join hands and raise their voices against the government, moved by their understanding and empathy for each other’s isolated battles.
The screenings were co-organised by Film Society of Bhubaneswar, and was preceded by Queer Poetry and Storytelling session, co-organised by a city-based poetry club. The event wrapped after Queer Literature Readings session which was co-organised by a city-based book club.
Bijaya Biswal, a member of the organising team, said, “Our motive was to discuss about the necessity of isolated marginalised communities to work together for their own and also each other’s rights, with the realisation that the prejudices that every person faces have similar patterns of oppression and should not be exclusive for the same reason.”
He stressed on the importance of solidarity, building a community to bring individuals together who believed in the same cause for facilitating discussions and movements, freedom of love and social stereotypes.
The audience consisted of college students from Buxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar (BJB), Maharaja Krishna Chandra Gajapati Medical College and Hospital (MKCG), National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Bottom of Form, Xavier University Bhubaneswar (XUB), RD women’s college, Ravenshaw and other educational institutes.
