2007

DIALOGUES 

2007 saw the Inauguration of Dialogues, a Sappho for Equality and Pratyay Gender Trust collaborative effort.  It was the first Annual Calcutta Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Film and Video Festival at Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata. Eventually, Max Mueller Bhavan also joined as part of the ideation and organising committee. This was envisioned as a community space, and as the creation of a cultural platform to engage with queer issues, rights and politics. Dialogues is one of the oldest cultural spaces pioneering queer cinema, not only in Bengal, but across India. While film festivals had in the past included films centering LGBTQ+ lives, this was the only exclusive queer space for the same. 

Dialogues has historically been, and continues to be a collective effort with the purpose of mass awareness through direct engagement, and ensures access by remaining a non ticketed event that is open to all. This need for ingress is manifold- on one hand, a lot of queer people are unable to finance their access to cultural spaces such as these, therefore contributing to the exclusionary nature of art spaces. On the other hand, it encourages a larger section of cisgender heterosexual people to engage with LGBTQ+ experiences and issues. These relaxed and casual environments are the perfect spaces to facilitate gender and sexuality discourses. 

Its continued success over the last decade and more is proof that cultural spaces such as these are imperative to sustaining LGBTQ+ activism and social justice movements by engaging the general public.