Some of the most interesting LGBT filmmaking work is coming out of India, partly because homosexuality was only decriminalised recently, making it a huge social issue. As a result gay filmmakers are now able to openly make films about their experience on being gay in India, which touches on the immense difficulties LGBT people face in the country.
Sonali Gulati got a lot of interest with her 2011 documentary I Am, about what it’s like to be a lesbian woman in India. Now she’s putting together a fiction feature, Indian Patient, which Gay Star News reports will be about a liquid ‘cure’ for homosexuality peddled by quack doctors.
“There are many who believe in it and spend thousands of Rupees,” Gulati says, ‘One of the doctors that I met has ‘patients’ all over the world and even accepts PayPal for payment of doctor’s fees.”
The film has received a major shot in the arm thanks to a $50,000 grant from US based creative projects funding body Creative Capital.
While Gulati grew up in India, she is now based in the US with her partner, an Indian-American woman, and their six-month old son. ‘I can see myself back in India at some point in the future though for now I am keen that our son grows up in a place where there are other out queer parents raising children,’ she says.
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