The Red Umbrella - a story based documentation of the Indian gay rights movement

At the shooting: Tirthankar shooting a scene with Dipmoy, Sramana and Bina Guhathakurta



Imon and Didi: Capturing childhood frames

Imon: Unfurling the umbrella

Imon and Didi: a new biginning

50 min, Bengali (with English subtitles)
Kolkata, 2010

Screening: 25th of Jan, 2010 at Rotary sadan (Opp. Exide more Haldiram)

Entry open to all

All are cordially invited.

Synopsis:

Imon’s sister never liked her brother using a red umbrella. “Red umbrella is for girls”, she felt. The film traces Imon’s journey from a small village to the perplexing crowd of the city where many people are organizing some sort of a forbidden march to unfurl their hearts’ colors.

Through its course, the film generates questions around gender, sexuality and the history of LGBT rights movement in India. It embraces the popular debate around Indian Penal Code 377 that forbids same sex love, and the recent High Court rulings on the same.

In a span of 50 minutes the playright addresses issues like "coming out", activism, law and humanity.

Credits:

1. Story, Script & Direction: Tirthankar Guha Thakurta
2. Cinematography: Kallol Nath, Rupesh Chaudhuri
3. Music: Aneesh Basu
4. Cast: Dipmoy Nath, Sramana Mukhopadhyay, Bina Guha Thakurta, Chinmoy Guha Thakurta, Sreyoshi Guha Thakurta & Anuprabho Ghosh
5. Editing: Ayan Chakraborty

6. Make up & Styling: Manish Sharma
7. Sound recording & Dubbing: Nihar Ranjan Chakraborty
8. Studio: Post Production

About the Director:

A doctor and teacher at a Kolkata based medical college, Tirthankar took up film-making as a second year medical student. His first film Piku Bhalo Achhe (Piku Is Fine), based on the coming out of a young gay boy, won accolades at various national and international film festivals. His subsequent films Strangers in the Rain, Being Positive and Magic have all dealt with various facets of gender, sexuality and human rights. He has always been vocal about the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons through his profession and films.

Email: tirthankar82@yahoo.co.in

SCREENING OF BEING POSITIVE AND MAGIC AT 14TH KOLKATA FILM FESTIVAL

Dear friends,

we are glad to inform you that our films BEING POSITIVE and MAGIC has been selected for screening at the 14th Kolkata Film Festival this year. You are most cordially invited to be present at the screenings and encourage us,

regards,

Tirthankar

Date: 16th November 2008, Sunday
Time: 3 pm
Venue: Bangla Academy Main Auditorium (NANDAN COMPLEX)

Entry is open to all. Please come with all your friends ! :-)

MAGIC

Dear friends,

We are pleased to inform you all that we are ready with our next film "Magic" that was premiered at 6th Kalpanirjhar film festival early this month. Here's a brief about the film.

Synopsis:

The film, shot with still photography, takes us through the emotional turmoils of a HIV positive lady who finds that she is pregnant.

Credits:

Story, script & direction: Tirthankar Guha Thakurta
Photography: Kallol Nath
Music: Aneesh Basu
Cast: Sramana Mukhopadhyay, Bikiran Bhattacharya, Sumana Chatterjee, Anuprabho Ghosh
Editing: Ayan Chakraborty

Screening

The premier is planned to be at the 14th Kolkata Film festival on 16th November 2008, at Nandan.

blogging after a long gap...

Hi friends,

How are you all?

It has been a long time that I had posted a message in this column... which however never implies that life was un-eventful. Here's posting a few snippets from the Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk (LGBT pride walk) to start our conversation....

Best regards.

Tirthankar

Me with Papu at the walk

Clad in Rainbow

Why follow, when you can lead?

YELL: one-two-three-four; 377 no more!

Encouraging response at 4th International Short Film Festival , Kolkata

The team from "Being Positive"

Tirthankar's movies "Being Positive" and "Strangers in the rain" were screened at the 4th Kolkata International Short Film Festival at Nandan on 3rd and 4th December. Both of the movies were very popular with the audience as was evinced in the huge rounds of applause. After the show , Tirthankar was flanked by friends and movie enthusiasts. A memorable day indeed , for the LGBT community of Kolkata.

BEING POSITIVE and STRANGERS IN THE RAIN to be screened at 4th Kolkata International Short Film Festival

Dear Friends,

Two of our movies, "BEING POSITIVE" and "STRANGERS IN THE RAIN" have been selected for screening at the 4th Kolkata International Short Film Festival at Nandan.Below is the schedule for the movies . All of you are most cordially invited to the shows. Please come with all your friends and family to support our efforts.

Screening schedules:

BEING POSITIVE - 3rd Dec 07, 3:45pm
STRANGERS IN THE RAIN - 4th Dec 07, 5:45pm
Venue : NANDAN.

Passes will be availabe at NANDAN two hours before show.
Seats are limited, so please come early to reserve your seats (entry free). Kindly convey the invitation to all your friends and join us to inspire our efforts!

Regards,

Tirthankar

Channel V reports on Tirthankar's works

An extract from [V] My India Report [http://www.myindiareport.in/]
October 9th, 2007

A Salute to Dr. Guha Thakurta
General Sex Social Issues

Baseless opinions are worth the fight. Challenging social prejudices is the first and most ambitious step to drive a change. This post is put up to bring to light the story of one such person who leads the movement.
Reading the comments for the post ‘Is homosexuality a crime?’, I found this interesting story of a doctor who gives an account of his personal journey of coming to terms with his sexuality in an intolerant society. Dr. Guha Thakurta has set an excellent example by telling his story. He speaks out as he believes in fighting the social injustice through increasing awareness by providing insightful information. I think the story and his work need acknowledgment, so here it is.

In Dr. Guha Thakurta’s words:

I would like to share a few social and medical developments that have taken place on the issue of homosexuality over the past few years. The interactive blogs tempt me to share an incident that took place recently in South India, where a group of Mass Communication students were expelled from the college for choosing their topic of Diploma film as ‘Homosexuality’.It is indeed a matter of great shame and injustice that some students have been expelled from a college for their effort to make a film on an issue of their choice (which is a reality).

I take particular interest to write on this issue, in support of the victimized students’ rights, and the innumerable “out” of “closeted” gay and lesbian friends, as I had made a similar effort to make a film on Homosexuality when I was in the second year of my medical education, and I am gay (and a student of Psychiatry at a State Medical College, too).

In 2003, when I was a second year medical student at Calcutta National Medical College, we (me and my other class mates) made an effort to make a docu-feature titled, “Piku Bhalo Achhey” (Piku Is Fine) on the “coming out” of a gay boy and his journey towards self-acceptance.
It was a “coming out film” in the true sense of the term, as it was not only based on my own experiences as a child, but also, that I came out to the media with my sexual orientation soon after the release of the film. This holds a special significance, as, I was also afraid of being expelled of my college, should the authorities react irresponsibly! Although there were many moral eyes wondering at what was happening, there was no official interference with me or the film. Instead, when I was in the final year of my studies (during my internship), the Psychiatry department of our college arranged for a screening of the film which was attended by psychiatrists from different medical colleges, and psychologists from the Calcutta University.

Presently, I am posted as the house physician of Psychiatry at our institution, and my second effort at making a film on LGBT issues (”Strangers In The Rain”) was also encouraged by arranging for a screening of the same.

In the light of modern knowledge of Psychiatric Medicine, Homosexuality is neither a disorder, nor a crime. The ICD-10 ( International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition) published by WHO clearly states that homosexuality itself cannot be regarded as a disorder. DSM IV-TR ( Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, Text Revision) published by the American Psychiatric Association also strongly holds this view.Just to add a note to what some of the guests have commented; in the light of modern psychiatry,

(1)Homosexuality is not a disorder
(2)Homosexuality is just not a matter of choice, there is more to it. We cannot CHOOSE our sexual orientation. It only reflects the diversity of nature’s creation(please refer ICD 10, DSM IV TR, works of Alfred Kinsey and Evelyn Hooker, amongst others)
(3)Crime is a legal term. Whatever the law declares wrong is a crime (even if the Law itself is unscientific); so what? Science progresses at its own pace. Failure to catch up with the ongoing scientific changes is a disorder on part of the society.

In a country where we are gifted with the constitutional rights of freedom of expression, we have every right to raise voice for any cause including homosexuality and the society or any educational institution does not have the right to penalize an individual for the same. It is the need of the time to be united against such fascist powers and stand in support of the victims of moral policing.

With warm regards and spirits,

Dr Tirthankar Guha Thakurta,
Department of Psychiatry,
Calcutta National Medical College,
Kolkata - 700 014
West Bengal

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To read more on this article, please visit: http://www.myindiareport.in/2007/10/09/a-salute-to-drthakruta/#more-170