KASHISH 2016 launches campaign to crowdfund South Asia’s biggest LGBT film festival on Wishberry
Crowdfunding will fund a part of the festival expenses, including a scholarship for filmmakers
KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival 2016 has launched its campaign to crowdfund South Asia’s biggest LGBT film fest on Wishberry. KASHISH was the first LGBT event to successfully raise money through crowdfunding in 2012 and for the fourth year in a row will raise funds for the seventh edition of the festival scheduled to be held between May 25 to May 29, 2016. The festival will be simultaneously held at three venues in South Mumbai – the iconic art deco theatre Liberty, Alliance Francaise de Bombay and Max Mueller Bhavan.
“Since its inception in 2010, KASHISH has had a strong focus and involvement of the community,” said Sridhar Rangayan, festival director, who recently won the National Award for Best Editing. “KASHISH has relied on individuals, organizations and communities to make the festival happen. The crowdfunding campaign is also a platform for intrinsic involvement by the festival delegates and supporters from across the world, who see KASHISH as ‘their own’ festival and would like to see its sustenance and growth to increase dialogues around LGBTQ issues in mainstream spaces.”
Wishberry.in, India’s leading crowdfunding platform, has also come on board this year as Title Partner for KASHISH 2016. “We are continuing with our association with Kashish, now in its 4th year. We love the concept of Kashish and we’re proud to come on board this year as sponsors as well. It is a much needed platform to give voice to the LGBT issues, which people are generally ignorant about. We hope that Kashish reaches out beyond its community and becomes an inclusive platform for everyone to learn about alternate sexuality. And Wishberry will always support this mission,” said Anshulika Dubey, COO, Wishberry.
The target for this year is to raise Rs 2.5 lakhs, which will partly fund the festival expenses including hiring equipments and administrative expenses. As part of its objective to provide a platform for Indian filmmakers who make films on LGBT themes, KASHISH 2016 crowdfunding campaign will also use part of the funds raised on a scholarship for selected filmmakers from outside Mumbai to come to the film festival and interact with the audience, filmmaking fraternity and showcase their films. For those who contribute there are incentives like Tshirts, DVDs, passes for the opening night Red Carpet party and Dress Circle seats.
KASHISH 2016 will be held from May 25-29, 2016 at Liberty Cinema, Alliance Française de Bombay and Max Mueller Bhavan. The festival theme is ‘7 Shades of Love’. Love in all its forms has been celebrated as the highest form of human emotions since the beginning of civilization – romantic love or Eros, friendship or the love between friends, the love between a parent and a child, the first stirrings of love between young lovers to the enduring love of committed partners, the love for humanity and the love and acceptance of one’s true self. The festival theme for 2016, ‘7 Shades of Love’ embodies this spirit. It underlines that at the core of human relationships is the capacity to love each other and offer respect so that each person can live with equality and dignity.
Check out KASHISH 2015 Highlights : http://
