We are the evolving outcomes of hard won battles, of new and persistent struggles. Our powerful articulations – as women, queer and trans persons, inhabiting a spectrum of identities and realities, are driven not just by our own longings, but of all those who fought before us, speaking up against the control over our bodies, lives and autonomies. In the face of structural patriarchy, casteism, misogyny, heteronormativity, islamophobia and ableism that perpetuate rigid and toxic notions of beauty, colour, shape, size, attire, labour, livelihood, faith, desire and voice, we assert ourselves, though not without being shamed and penalised.

 

The insidious rituals of patriarchy, continue to produce us, label us, code us, limit us. That efficient, well-oiled web that connects our seemingly unrelated oppressive experiences across community and geography, operating meticulously through systems of law, state and governance, economy, culture and education, extending up to and beyond the home, the workplace and familial and intimate relationships. Its power is manifest in the real and notional entitlement that male bodies, especially upper caste male bodies, have over all others. In the midst of patronising platitudes, sexual, casteist and communal violence - in the name of love, honour, hate, policing, shame, development and correction continues to surge. Rapists, mobs, trolls are publicly celebrated and rewarded, even as marital rape retains legal sanction. The bodies of women who dare to speak up are up for auction, communities are othered and being systematically broken down. The locking up inside and outside of homes during the pandemic that has already compromised and destroyed countless lives and livelihoods has unleased new forms of trauma. The rights of trans persons to self-definition remain subject to dehumanising bureaucratic scrutiny and medicalisation. The Supreme Court judgement upholding our constitutional claims to sexual and bodily autonomy, choice and dignity stands as confirmation of the rights that belong to us, but they need assertion in an empowering context - that struggle remains the larger one.

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There are inequalities, dissonances and hostilities to counter and negotiate, both within and outside, those that inform our most private moments to those that regulate our public and social selves. Labour to leisure, everything is controlled, our voices, knowledge and experiences, overlooked and dismissed. The rights to speak up, define ourselves, to love and live freely are also questions of employment, healthcare, freedom of expression, education, houses, water, safe spaces, citizenship and the disproportionate burdens communities bear. How do we assert our selves, choices, identities, dreams and minds, be comfortable with the limits and rebellions of our abilities and disabilities, the freedom to walk, run or stay still, how do we contend with, live with families that look away, inflict pain, other us, because we refuse to conform to gendered codes and strive to be free, to be complete, to be ourselves? Why must our rights, desires, histories and names be crimes? How do we respond to and heal from the attacks on our bodies and minds – individual and community?

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The last two decades have been of anger, rage and resistance against stubborn cultures of violence, oppression and exclusion. People have been pulled back enough, silenced enough and shouted down enough. Everyday mutinies against dominant mores are producing new ways of looking, imagining, being, loving, living and forming relationships and alliances that are empowering and hopeful. This has sparked artistic engagements and expressions that vigorously expose and oppose prejudice, inequality and violence, while encouraging affirmative perspectives, conversations and imaginations.

 

It is this hope, agency, turmoil, intricacy and passion that we intend these films to capture and bring alive, with nuance and depth. We seek films inspired by peoples’ lived experiences and their readings of their worlds, their aspirations, fears, pains, triumphs, fantasies, vulnerabilities, transgressions and tales of love, courage, resilience and solidarity. Stories that reflect, question, compel, disrupt and transcend popular visual vocabulary and contest dominant and claustrophobic polarities and stereotypes, contributing to the expanding political and artistic discourse around individual and collective lives, memories, histories, complexities and possibilities. To be seen. To be heard. To count.