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Gay film lands students in
trouble
15 May 2007-
India- T’PURAM: Amid the nationwide debate on "moral policing" on art, a
group of students in a church-run college in Kerala have landed in
trouble for making a short film on homosexuality.
Four students, including the producer and director of the five-minute
film as well those who acted in it, were suspended by the authorities of
St Joseph's College of Communication at Changanassery in Kottayam
district recently.
While the students facing the action hold that this as an infringement
on freedom of artistic expression, the college authorities said that the
action was taken as the issue involved gross breach of discipline as the
campus film was shot on the campus without prior permission.
"We have nothing more to say now as the matter is before the Mahatma
Gandhi University to which the college is affiliated," Fr Sebastian
Punnassery, director of the college told PTI.
According to Jeo Baby, final year student of MA, Cinema and Television,
his film Secret Minds had only reflected the reality that
homosexuality was present in the society.
He told PTI that the film "is a serious movie on gay subject with only
music and no dialogue. The college authorities came to know about it
when the film was submitted for a campus film festival conducted by a
leading film society," he said.
Jeo said it was not his first film as he had made works on begging in
the "God's own country" and it had won campus film prizes. In the memo
issued to the students, the college authorities had held that the film
had obscene scenes capable of misleading young minds, he said.
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