Unfolding Memory: Many People, Many Desires

45 minutes | English, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi with English subtitles | 2004

As part of BIC’s Pride Programs, this session will include a screening of T Jayashree’s Many People, Many Desires, followed by a panel discussion with T Jayashree, Mira Brunner and Siddharth Narrain.

Many People, Many Desires is centered around the interviews of many members of the LGBTQ community in Bangalore at the time. The film was shot entirely in a MiniDV tape format. Starting from an exploration of sexuality and human rights, it allows the viewer to hear the first-person narratives of some of those who were engaged with the sexuality movement of the time – whose work is instrumental for the fight for legal rights for queer people in India.

Using legal discrimination against sexual minorities as its starting point, the film explores the relationship between class, sexuality, and gender. The film captures early years in the movement against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a colonial law which criminalized homosexual behavior and has now, through efforts which included some of those interviewed in the film, been read down.

The panel will talk about what has changed, what has remained the same, and QAMRA’s (the Queer Archive of Memory, Reflection, and Activism) attempts to preserve this history. They will discuss their perspectives on archiving queer material and the responsibilities of preserving what is still in living memory.

In collaboration with:

This year, BIC celebrates Pride Month through a series of programs that embrace Queerness as it is — unconforming, changing and alternative. Every program aims to embody the fluid and non-normative possibilities of existence that queerness creates, while fostering a community that welcomes difference in an unbending society, whether that be through new models of living or unique modes of self-expression. Pride, Insists Upon Itself!