About Us

Bangalore has hosted film festivals on themes related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT or Queer) communities since 2003. Although they were small events, since their transformation into The Bangalore Queer Film Festival (BQFF) in April 2009, held at the Alliance Francaise, the festivals have made Bangalore a destination for international Queer films.

BQFF

The 1st edition of the Bangalore Queer Film Festival was held in Bangalore on 10 and 11 April, 2009. The event had a tightly packed schedule screening more than 20 feature, short and documentary films alongside panel discussions on being out at the workplace and short performance pieces using drama, dance, Sufi music and poetry.

The 2nd edition of the Bangalore Queer Film Festival will be held in Bangalore in February 2010. Screening feature, documentary and experimental films, BQFF 2010 caters to a large Bangalore public interested in international films. Panel discussions on key issues concerning the LGBT community in Bangalore/India will also be organised as part of the schedule.

All the film events hosted in Bangalore have had a steady walk-in crowd at consistent numbers. Both the previous film festivals hosted at the Alliance Francaise by the same organisers had a minimum of 100 audience members and maximum of full capacity in the auditorium. The Alliance Francaise auditorium seats approximately 250-300 (including casual seating).

All film festival events have had extensive publicity as both print and electronic media covered the events objectively without too much sensationalism. In the BQFF 2009 edition, Tehelka, Time Out, India Today, Times of India, DNA, Deccan Herald, Mid-day, The Hindu, The New Indian Express and a host of others covered the print media. NDTV led the electronic media coverage with an exclusive on the first day of the event.

Organisers

BQFF 2010 is organised by Good As You (GAY), SWABHAVA Trust and We’re Here and Queer (WHAQ!). GAY (www.goodasyou.in) is a support group (est. 1994) for LGBT people in Bangalore and is one of the oldest support groups in India. SWABHAVA Trust (est. 1999) is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation working with LGBT issues, including providing access to support services in Bangalore (www.swabhava.org). Both GAY and Swabhava have co-hosted previous queer film festivals in Bangalore.

This year, another group called We’re Here and Queer (WHAQ!), a queer women’s support group (estd. 2009) is also a co-organiser. GAY and WHAQ! regularly organise film screenings at their weekly meetings. All the groups are non-funded and operate entirely on donations.