Madurai to host trans-film festival in August

Madurai to host trans-film festival in August

For the transgender community in Madurai, August is the month that the strobe lights train on their lifestyle. What started as a small experiment in 2018, ‘The Trans Film Awards’ has now entered its fourth year and has grown into a mega platform. For the first time it has gone beyond Tamil and is inviting entries from Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam short-film directors.

Priya Babu, Managing Trustee of Transgender Resource Centre, and the force behind the film festival says, “Though the government has done much and a slow transformation is taking place in the society, there are still voids that have to be filled.”

“Media is a strong tool to help bring about a change in the way society looks at us, the reason why we hit upon the idea of organising the film festival. We’ve received good support and encouragement for our endeavour,” she says.

During the first three seasons, more than 60 films have been screened and some of the prize winners have gone on to become directors in mainstream cinema. “More than 20 transgender artistes have acted in these movies and in one season we screened films by two transgender directors,” she adds.

But as Priya Babu says, more than the show, it is the precursor to the event that brings about the much-needed change. One can see a healthy interaction between the transgender community and the society right from conceptualisation, arrangements and bringing the show to the stage.

“It is for this reason that we are happy that American College in Madurai has provided us a platform to host the film festival.

It is for this dialogue that the doors of the research centre which has about 200 books, umpteen paper clippings, and government orders are always open.