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Queer On Cinema

@queeroncinema

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🗒️I write essays. ✂️ I edit. 👁️ I look queerly.
Writer n Film-maker of @mehroon.shortfilm 🎬

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I finished watching Andor last night, and I am shaken to the core by what I witnessed. I don’t think I am the same person anymore. I feel transformed, forever changed, emboldened even. Ever since I started watching it, I have broken down countless times just thinking about what I saw.

Andor is a rare kind of show. It is safe to say that nothing like it has ever been made, nor is anything like it being made today. I cannot imagine the sheer effort that went into bringing this story to life. Never in my wildest daydreams did I think that an American show, let alone a Disney show, would utter the word “genocide,” and then go on to depict exactly what that means.

I never imagined I would live to see a series portray the Empire and Imperialism for what it truly is: terrifying. Watching Andor, there are moments that leave you despairing, even crying, because the power of the Empire feels so overwhelming and soul-crushing. In those moments, the series feels almost like a horror show. And yet, there are also moments of hope, moments that remind you to draw strength and courage. But the question remains: what does the show want its audience to take away from it?

Andor is a warning. It is a wake-up call. It demands that we not only recognize fascism and imperialism but also acknowledge that the Empire is at our very door, or will be, seeking to oppress, dominate, and extinguish the fire within us. The series wants us to confront the horrors of imperialism and, crucially, urges us not to look away when brute force destroys innocent lives.

Episode 8 of Season 2, titled Who Are You?, captures this with devastating clarity. In this episode, the native population of Ghorman stages a protest against the Empire at Palmo Plaza, the very site where years earlier Grand Moff Tarkin landed his cruiser on a crowd of protestors, killing 500 people.

*Continued in the comments*

[Andor, Star Wars, Rebellion, Empire, Imperialism, AntiFascism, Resistance, Hope, Science Fiction, Storytelling, Disney Plus, Nemik, WakeUp Call, Rebel Alliance, Political Cinema, TV Show Review, Cultural.Critique, Palestine, Revolution, Media Analysis] by @queeroncinema

🎧🔊 Watching Tenzing for the 2nd time, and Genden Phuntsok is such a treat to watch.

What I love about Tenzing is how it treats the customs and traditions of its people with such profound respect.

Never reducing them to savagery, primitivism, or mere superstition, but allowing us to understand Chomolungma as her people do.

Not simply a mountain to be conquered, but a mother who holds her children in her womb, shelters them in her shadow, and watches over them.

A living truth, carried across generations. ❤️🏔️

🎬 COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER

All movie clips, footage, images, music, and other audiovisual materials featured on this page belong to their respective copyright owners.

No ownership of third-party copyrighted material is claimed.

Where applicable, such use is intended to fall within the scope of applicable copyright exceptions, including fair dealing for criticism, review, and research.

[Tenzing, Tenzing Film, Tibet, Free Tibet, Queer On Cinema, Cinema Appreciation, Film Appreciation, Cinematic Storytelling, Indigenous Traditions, Himalayan Culture, Chomolungma, Mount Everest, Cultural Heritage, Indigenous Worldviews, Sacred Mountains, Mountain Spirituality, Genden Phuntsok, Respectful Representation, Beyond Western Perspectives, Cinema And Culture, Film Lovers, World Cinema]

#Tenzing #QueerOnCinema #WorldCinema #CinematicStorytelling #Chomolungma by @queeroncinema

Dear Upper Caste Bengali Hindus, where does your anti-caste politics go during Durga Puja?

If your progressivism cannot survive Durga Puja, perhaps it was never progressivism to begin with.

You cannot aestheticise oppression and expect the oppressed to applaud.

As a Bahujan person, I refuse to suspend my politics for your festivities.

Your festival is not beyond criticism. Your caste privilege is not beyond accountability.

[Anti Caste Politics, Bahujan Resistance, Dalit Bahujan Adivasi, Upper Caste Privilege, Durga Puja Critique, Mahishasur Resistance, Asur Community, Caste Oppression, Brahminism, Caste Accountability, Anti Caste Feminism, Adivasi Rights, Cultural Appropriation, Hindu Nationalism, Caste Injustice, Social Justice, Bahujan Liberation, Political Criticality, Bengali Hindu Culture, Decolonial Resistance]

#AntiCaste #BahujanResistance #DalitBahujanAdivasi #CastePrivilege #Mahishasur by @queeroncinema

I am watching The Fellowship of the Ring while the world outside, including some of my closest friends, is out celebrating Durga Puja.

And this is my Durga Puja. The way I choose to celebrate Durga Puja!

Free of Brahminical hegemony. No hate. No bitterness. Just bliss.

Of course, there is a part of me that feels a little abandoned, watching people I love make their own plans. But that's okay. People are allowed to have their own plans.

So tonight, I choose myself. I choose Middle-earth over the crowds, the sweat, the pushing and pulling, and that torturous soundscape. I choose the comfort of my own company, the stories that make me happy, and the freedom to celebrate on my own terms.

I don't have to be everywhere. I don't have to celebrate the way everyone else does.

My Durga Puja doesn't have to look like anyone else's.

Tonight, it's me, The Fellowship of the Ring, and the quiet, radical bliss of being at home with myself.

And honestly? That's a pretty beautiful way to celebrate. ❤️

[Durga Puja, Fellowship Of The Ring, Lord Of The Rings, Queer On Cinema, Cinephile Life, Solo Celebrations, Choosing Myself, Self Love, Personal Freedom, Anti Caste, Brahminical Hegemony, Alternative Celebrations, Middle Earth, Comfort Cinema, Cinema And Culture, Finding Joy, Independent Spirit, Quiet Rebellion, Chosen Happiness, Celebrating Differently]

#QueerOnCinema #DurgaPuja #LordOfTheRings #CinephileLife #ChooseYourOwnJoy by @queeroncinema

H.O.M.E.

I have missed these people. I have missed this place. The place where I first felt at home.

I have missed the people who made this place home. The people who became siblings in friends, and parents who accepted me for what I am. Who saw me for what I am. Who loved me for what I am.

I have broken and shared bread, again and again, with the people populating these frames. I have gone through some of the worst and some of the best times with them beside me. We have seen some really crazy times together. Some of the people who make up this unit, this family, are missing from these frames, but they are very much there in our hearts.

And now, it is time to invite a new member into our family. To pass the breadbasket, so to speak.

She has made us feel fuller, happier, as though we had always been missing a part of ourselves. And somehow, she feels like someone I have always known. Like the universe brought us all together at precisely the right time.

Family is a very precious thing. And chosen families are infinitely more precious.

Because, at the end of the day, we are all just emo girls and boys asking to be loved.

And chosen families are infinitely more precious precisely because we find something in one another that we lacked in our blood families. Something that was missing. Something that we perhaps did not even know we were looking for.

Chosen families make us feel seen because we have all lost something. And by being together, by choosing one another and being there for one another, we have also gained so much.

Someone once said that every friend brings out a side of another friend that would be lost forever if one of them were to die untimely. That profound thought has stayed with me ever since I first encountered it.

And I think it applies to all of us.

To all of us who make this place home.

To all of us who feel like home.

H.O.M.E.

[Chosen Family, Found Family, Home, Belonging, Friendship, Love, Queer Joy, Queer Community, Family, Siblings, Togetherness, Acceptance, Being Seen, Emotional Intimacy, Shared Memories, Chosen Kinship, Safe Spaces, Human Connection, Homecoming, Family Of Choice]

#ChosenFamily #FoundFamily by @queeroncinema

SEPTEMBER.

I moved out of my abusive home this month.

For the longest time, I genuinely believed I would die if I ever took one step outside that house. That I wouldn't survive the terror of leaving the only life I had known, however painful it was.

But I took that step.

And I didn't die.

And somewhere in the weeks since, I have begun to realise that survival was only the beginning.

I have started claiming back my body. My mind. My sexuality. My choices. My voice.

I have told myself that I will not censor myself anymore. I will not keep shrinking myself to make other people comfortable. I will not restrict myself from experiencing life in all its terrifying, beautiful fullness.

I want to feel everything.

Love. Lust. Grief. Desire. Heartbreak. Joy. Depression. Tenderness. Anger. Pleasure. Loss.

Everything.

I have been cooking again. Cooking for myself, for my bestie, for the people who have walked into this home. And in doing so, I have rediscovered a part of myself I thought I had lost forever.

My nurturing side.

For a long time I wondered: when would I finally get to escape?

When would I finally get to live?

I used to think freedom meant simply getting out. I was wrong.

Freedom is waking up and realising that your life belongs to you for the first time in your life.

Freedom is discovering that the things you were taught to see as your limitations do not have to define the life you build.

My disabilities don't feel like disabilities anymore.

And perhaps these are the greatest gifts my new home has given me.

The house I came from took so much from me.

Years. Confidence. Trust. Parts of my body and mind. Parts of my ability to love, to desire, to nurture, to simply be.

But this new home, and the people who have populated it with their warmth, have already given me tenfold what I thought I had lost.

And yet, they didn't give me my life back. I took it back.

And for the first time in a very, very long time,

I am not waiting for my life to begin anymore.

I am living it!

[Personal Essay, Healing Journey, Reclaiming Self, New Beginnings, Finding Freedom, Emotional Healing, Chosen Family, Coming Home, Love, Queer On Cinema]

#QueerStories by @queeroncinema

If you are as Batman-obsessed as I am, you would already know that the entirety of @mattreevesla’s The Batman Part II will take place in Gotham during winter.

And as an avid cinephile, Gothamite, filmmaker and, apparently, one of the many unofficial Matt Reeves mentees, I am already imagining what this is going to look like.

I guarantee you we are going to see reds of every possible shade, deep golds, sickly yellows, muddy whites, earthy browns and the coldest greys imaginable, all colliding against Gotham buried under cascading snow.

Reeves understands Gotham as a mood, a character and a political landscape. And winter gives him an entirely new visual vocabulary to play with.

The architecture.
The grime.
The snow.
The shadows.
The neon bleeding through the cold.
The blood against the white.

WE ARE IN FOR A CINEMATIC TREAT OF THE TALLEST ORDER!

And now, a Public Service Announcement:

If you still haven't watched The Batman Part I, you are genuinely missing out on something spectacular.

Hollywood rarely makes superhero epics this political, this grimy, this grounded and this interested in the structures that produce inequality, corruption and despair. Reeves approaches Batman not merely as a superhero story, but as a story about Gotham itself and the systems that have allowed it to rot.

So if the title The Batman doesn't appeal to you, or you have somehow convinced yourself that superhero films aren't worth your time, PLEASE reconsider.

Since, today is Batman Day and also the weekend, why not give it a shot tonight and get lost in the layers of the epic that is Part I.

Because this isn't just a superhero movie.

It's Gotham.

And Matt Reeves is only getting started.

(the only cinephilia platform on insta where the frame/still hasn't been cropped)

Follow me @queeroncinema

[The Batman Part II, Matt Reeves, The Batman, Batman, Gotham City, Gotham In Winter, DC Films, DC Comics, Batman Fans, Superhero Cinema, Political Cinema, Cinematic Worldbuilding, Film Aesthetics, Winter Cinematography, Cinematography, Film Analysis, Cinephilia, Film Culture, QueerOnCinema, Gothamite]

#TheBatmanPartII #MattReeves #BatmanCinema #Cinephile #QueerOnCinema by @queeroncinema

I just finished watching @mainvaapasaaunga for the 2nd time a few hours ago.

The first time around, I remember wondering why Imtiaz Sir chose to end the film with a song like 'Kya Kamaal Hai'. After everything the film had taken us through, why end it there? Why this particular kind of optimism?

And then tonight, as the film ended, I looked outside.

The first rays of sunlight were slowly leaking through my hibiscus. Crows were crowing. Somewhere in the distance, doggos were barking. I could hear labourers hammering away. And towards the end of the video, there was the sound of children laughing.

And suddenly, I understood.

Because to look at a world full of misery, violence, destruction and the slow erosion of the very ethos of humanity, and still choose to end your film by looking for beauty in it, is not naïveté.

It is courage.

To acknowledge the ruins without allowing the ruins to become the entirety of your imagination. To look at everything that is broken and still believe that something tender can grow through the cracks. To reflect upon the fragilities of childhood, innocence and human connection when the world around you seems determined to destroy all three.

That takes something extraordinary from a human being.

And perhaps even more from an artist.

Because cynicism is easy. Despair is easy. We live in a world that gives us enough reasons every single day to believe that humanity is beyond saving. It is much harder to look at all of that and say: I still choose to see something beautiful.

That, I think, is ultimately what Imtiaz Sir's film is asking us to do.

To look at the ruins and search for the flower.

To imagine that somewhere, sometime, years from now, in some forgotten "Kacchi Dalan", something will still be blooming!

[Main Vaapas Aaunga, Imtiaz Ali, Indian Cinema, Film Analysis, Cinephilia] by @queeroncinema

Main Vaapas Aaunga is Absolute Cinema of the Tallest Order! It's a feast for the eyes, ears, mind and most importantly the heart!

Edit notes: Seeing the courtship unfold this way; sequentially, unlike in the film, brings me such joy! Cleaning the audio was hell but really enjoyable too as there was comedic music for the first one minute of clips. I also tried multiple variations of placing the song over the dialogues until it fit the gaps, silences, stares, gasps perfectly. Enjoy! Spread the love!

Consider following me @queeroncinema for more such edits.

Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended. I do not own the music/video. All rights belong to the rightful owners. This is for entertainment/non-profit purposes only. Copyright Disclaimer Section 52 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 which governs the Doctrine of Fair Dealing.

[Main Vaapas Aaunga, Imtiaz Ali, Partition, 1947, Batwara, Partition Drama, Vedang Raina, Sharvari, Ishar, Bollywood, Hindi Cinema, Indian Cinema, Film Love, Film Review, Movie Talk, Film Twitter, Cinephilia, Cinema Lovers, Rising Star, Chemistry, Romance, Lover Boy, Heartthrob, Bollywood Romance, Queer On Cinema]

#MainVaapasAaunga #VedangRaina #BollywoodCinema #IndianCinema #QueerOnCinema by @queeroncinema

There’s something really special about watching a film again after a long hiatus. The movie stays the same, but you don't. What once seemed like a story about a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, about marriage, loneliness, and friendship, now feels more like a film about the complex ways women find, recognize, and hold onto each other within systems that try to pit them against one another.

Paromitar Ek Din starts at a funeral and moves through memory, shifting between the present and the past as Paromita remembers her relationship with Sanaka. The relationship is special because it doesn’t follow the usual pattern of the saas-bahu conflict. Sanaka and Paromita become friends and their friendship stays even when the system that brought them together doesn’t stay intact.

And then there’s @konkona

Watching her here, in one of those brief early roles, makes you think, “Wait. Was that really her?”. It also feels like finding a small piece of cinematic history that’s right in front of your eyes. Before the Konkona we came to know through Mr. and Mrs.Iyer , Page 3, Omkara, and A Death in the Gunj, there are these little gems scattered through Bengali cinema.

Maybe that’s also why revisiting old films is so enjoyable.
Sometimes you come back for the film. Sometimes for the people who made it. And sometimes, you’re just watching for the joy of being a cinephile, searching for a familiar face in the background.

Some films change when we grow older.

And some just show us what we weren’t able to see the first time.

[ParomitarEkDin, AparnaSen, KonkonaSensharma, RituparnaSengupta, BengaliCinema, IndianCinema, QueerOnCinema, Cinephilia, FilmRevisiting, FilmMemory, BengaliFilms, IndianFilmmakers, WomenInCinema, FemaleFriendship, MotherInLawDaughterInLaw, FeministCinema, RituparnoGhoshEra, KonkonaSensharmaFans, CinemaHistory, FilmNostalgia]

#ParomitarEkDin #AparnaSen #BengaliCinema #KonkonaSensharma #QueerOnCinema by @queeroncinema

Joyland is a film about joy as transgression in a society coded with Muslim laws and ethics.

Its characters are repeatedly punished not because they are monstrous. They are punished because they want to. They want to work. To laugh. To love. To desire. To be desired. To dance. To cook. To see the sea. To live.

The film opens with a game of hide and seek as Haider hides beneath a white sheet. Mumtaz ends beneath one. Between those two sheets is a whole life spent looking for the world outside.

Thus there is something special about windows in Joyland. People are always looking outside through windows, as if their desires exist somewhere outside their living space. Even the 4:3 aspect ratio mimics a window.

The children look out of the window. We look at Mumtaz and Haider having a banter through the windows early on. Mumtaz also looks at another man through her binoculars. And perhaps that is what Joyland is really interested in: the possibility of an outside.

Because in this society, no one really has the right to seek autonomy. If they do, like Haider or Mumtaz, they are immediately punished for aspiring to be something else or wanting a better life. This happens repeatedly. Mumtaz is not allowed to work. Fayyaz Aunty is not allowed to desire another man even though she is a widow. Nucchi also asks Allah for forgiveness because in Muslim societies women can't laugh freely.

It's a story about people who want ordinary things in a world that makes even wanting the ordinary feel dangerous. Maybe that's what makes Joyland so devastating.

And perhaps that is what Joyland ultimately asks:

What happens when simply wanting a life of your own becomes an act of transgression?

Keywords:

[Joyland, Saim Sadiq, Pakistani Cinema, Queer Cinema, Trans Cinema, Biba, Mumtaz, Haider, Queer Film Analysis, LGBTQ Cinema, South Asian Cinema, Pakistani Film, Muslim Society, Gender And Sexuality, Patriarchy, Queer Desire, Trans Representation, Cinematic Language, Film Analysis, Cinephilia]

#Joyland #QueerOnCinema #QueerCinema #PakistaniCinema #SouthAsianCinema by @queeroncinema