Queering South Asia

---

Room 112, Center For Arts, University @ Buffalo
September 21st, 6:00-9:00 p.m.

An anthology of short films and discussion exploring
the increasing visibility of gay culture in urban
India against the background of significant
socio-political shifts in the 1990s.

BOMgAY (11 min.)

---

Directed by the late Riyad Wadia, it broke new
cinematic ground in 1996 as India's first 'gay'
documentary. BOMgAY has R. Raj Rao's wonderful
poetry at its heart. Six vignettes address what it
means to be gay in contemporary India and the
struggle of the gay community to establish an identity

BeLonging (10 min.)

---

Captures the state of mind of a gay researcher
(Parmesh Shahani) who returns "home" to study his
"own".

Q & A Session

---

Parmesh Shahani will lead a discussion mapping the
wider social context of Gay Bombay, and more
generally, on sexuality and gender in contemporary
urban India.
[Parmesh Shahani has recently graduated from the
Masters program in Comparative Media Studies at MIT.
He was the organizer of "Between the Lines:
Negotiating South Asian LBGT Identity" – Boston's
first festival of South Asian queer cinema, readings
and discussions held at MIT in 2004, for which he won
the Public Service Center's Community Connection Award
for 2003-2004. He is currently working on turning his
Master's thesis on contemporary gay Bombay into a
book, tentatively called Disco Jalebi!]

Gulabi Aaina (40 min.)

---

A unique film coming from India where homosexuality
is still taboo, The Pink Mirror (Gulabi Aaina), is a
colorful funny look into the Indian homosexual closet.
It pits two Indian drag queens against a westernized
gay teenager in a battle to woo a handsome hunk. It's
a clash of the east and west. Who will win?

The event is being organised through the generous
sponsorship of Media Studies Graduate Club,
American Studies Graduate Club, Comparative Literature
Graduate Club and The Institute for Research
and Education on Women & Gender.

Contact: Swati Bandi (sbandi@buffalo.edu), Aswin
Punathambekar (punathambekar@yahoo.com)