Pride Month may have passed but for Delhi-based college student Yash Sharma, celebrating stories from the LGBTQIA+ community is a year-round passion. The founder of the Instagram page 'Official Humans of Queer' and his team are all set to host their first queer film festival later in the week.

Sharma, who is 23 years old, explains, “I have learnt that movies influence us and teach us things. So, when we talk about LGBTQIA+ films, I hope people can directly learn something from the characters in these films." All the films explore themes connected to the LGBTQIA+ community and the many situations they find themselves in over the course of their lives. "The motivation behind the festival is proper representation for the community.” The group has invited many college students across India to attend the festival to help them understand more about the community through such representation. “The event isn’t only for the youth or people from the community who are yet to come out or are out and proud, but for the entire society, which needs to accept and normalise everything,” he adds. 

The two-day festival will showcase 25 films including 'Vaidya', 'Miss Man' and 'Almariyaan', which delve into the lives of people from the community. Photo Courtesy: Yash Sharma

The Queer Film Festival 2021 will showcase 25 films for 48-hours at a stretch on September 25-26 starting 12 am. Among the selection are 'Vaidya', a short film about a queer couple who navigate the ups and downs of their new-found relationship, and 'Miss Man', another short about a man who finds himself by discovering his sexuality. Some of the other films that will be a part of the festival are ‘Sunday’, ‘Almariyaan’, ‘Ruhaani Raat’, ‘Faded Rainbow’ and ‘Inside’. The event will be conducted by Sharma and his team of four along with 30 volunteers from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata in the country as well as Pakistan and Germany.