KASHISH 2021 Documentary Features (out of competition)

Documentary Features - out of competition - resized

ADMITTED
Dir: Ojaswwee Sharma / 117 min / India

Admitted is a biographical docudrama on the controversial life of Dhananjay Chauhan – the first transgender student of Panjab University – her life journey with thrust on education along with gender identification, dilemmas and expression in personal life. Admitted explores the largest case of Transgender Education in a mainstream public university of North India, the 1st public washroom for transgenders in a public university and developments for Transgender Rights, Education and acceptance to mainstream pre and post the historic NALSA Judgement of 2014 of adding 3rd Gender to a Nation.

AHEAD OF THE CURVE
Dirs: Jen Rainin, Rivkah Beth Medow / 97 min / USA

With a fist full of credit cards, a lucky run at the horse track, and chutzpah for days, Franco Stevens launched Curve, the best-selling lesbian magazine ever published. Ahead Of The Curve tracks the power of lesbian visibility and community from the early ’90s to the present day through the story of Franco’s founding of Curve magazine. Decades later, in the wake of a disabling injury, Franco learns that Curve will fold within the year and questions the relevance of the magazine in the face of accelerating threats to LGBTQ+ community. To forge a path forward, Franco reaches out to women working in today’s queer spaces to understand what queer women need today and how Curve can continue to serve the community.

ALWAYS AMBER
Dirs: Hannah Reinikainen Bergenman, Lia Hietala / 74 min / Sweden

Amber is a 17-year-old teen. Together with best friend Sebastian, the two queer youngsters share a world far away from the judging eyes of society. When they are together, anything feels possible. We get to hang out with Amber and Sebastian during this identity building period, when they share everything from dreams and parties to new friendships. But when Amber falls in love with Charlie, something starts to challenge their utopian world. Trust issues begin to emerge, and in the midst of it all Amber has to face going through their transition alone. In Always Amber, we get a unique insight into a new generation.

Screening supported by Consulate General of Sweden

MARRY ME HOWEVER
Dir: Mordechai Vardi / 63 min / Israel

The film explores the lives Orthodox-Jewish LGBT members who willingly choose to marry heterosexuals and raise a hetero-normative family, obeying the rules of their societies while denying their own identities.

Screening supported by Embassy of Israel

MOHINI – MEN IN SAREES
Dir: Sharmila Rajaram Shinde / 68 min / India

Mohini follows Marathi Television actress Sharmila Rajaram Shinde as she tries to satiate her curiosity about the crossdresser folk dancers of Maharashtra. After a chance encounter with a male lavni artist, Shinde takes us along on her journey of insights she gathers about the art, history and taboo surrounding the dance form. From the formation of ‘Bin Baykancha Tamasha’ an all-male lavni troupe to the hurdles that the homophobic Indian society creates in the artistic expression of the male lavni dancers, the film shows the glittery side of the painted faces as well as the dark side after the curtain falls in the 1 hour 7 minute documentary presentation.

ONCE A FURY
Dir: Jacqueline Rhodes / 83 min / USA

Documentary profiling former members of the Furies, a notorious 1970s lesbian separatist collective that published a national newspaper and planned to seize state power. Featuring interviews with 10 of the original 12 Furies, photography by JEB (Joan E. Biren), and archival materials.

SEX, SIN & 69
Dir: Sarah Fodey / 75 min / Canada

Sex, Sin & 69 is a historical, retrospective film about the 1969 legislation to ‘decriminalize’ homosexuality. Told through contemporary voices including queer academics, historians, activists, educators, artists, and community builders, the film attempts to challenge our understanding of queer history by shining a light on widely adopted misconceptions surrounding decriminalization.

Screening supported by Consulate General of Canada

TRANSITION AND HAPPINESS
Dir: Jonas Benarroch / 78 min / Spain

Rosa María is a transsexual woman and a father who completed her sexual reassignment surgery at the age of 59. Until then her behavior had been that of a typical macho. This documentary shows her “transition” or gradual empowerment as a woman, a process that holds a certain promise of fulfillment. Alongside her friend, Fina, also a transsexual woman over 60 years old, they walk this path of light and shadow in their struggle to conquer the desired status of being a woman, as well as a degree of recognition on the part of society.

TRANSKIDS
Dir: Hilla Medalia / 103 min / Israel

Four Israeli teenagers undergo an irreversible life-altering process. Four Israeli families must grapple with the unsettling process their child goes through during the already brutal enough teenage years; each in its one.

WELL ROUNDED
Dir: Shana Myara / 61 min / Canada

Edgy, hilarious, unapologetically raunchy, and sometimes tear-jerking, Well Rounded brings you your new super queer XXXL racialized BFFs in comedy, fashion, health and research to help combat those pesky systemic fatphobias that threaten to make you hate yourself – when actually you’re PLENTY amazing just as you are. Blending gorgeous interviews with dreamy animation, director Shana Myara assembles personal stories from a diverse, captivating cast whose horrors, triumphs and commitment to dreaming large offer BIG inspiration – especially for those of us who don’t often see our BIPOC, LGB2TQ+, disabled and/or fat selves celebrated on screen.

Screening supported by Consulate General of Canada