T. Jayashree Video Collection
Series I: Video Documentation of the Fight Against 377, TJAV01.000
Series I consists of video footage from a project that attempted to document the journey of various activists, lawyers and others involved in the litigation process to decriminalise homosexuality in India. This includes footage of in-depth interviews, community consultations, strategy meetings, protests, public talks and discussions, and press conferences. Given that the project was never completed, it does not claim to provide an all-encompassing view but rather offers a glimpse of the movement in all its complexity. A list of the interviews can be found here and but the interviews themselves can only be accessed in-person, at the archive. Please write to qamraarchive@nls.ac.in to book an appointment to visit the archive.
Series II contains unedited footage of over 100 hours from Jayashree’s documentary film Many People Many Desires, which was completed and released in 2004. The film is centred around interviews of members of the queer community residing in Bangalore at the time.
The items listed below are composed of transcript documents, video recordings and audio clips in multiple formats including .pdf, .mov, .mp4, Mini DV tapes, and HD tapes.
“Do not forget history because it’s like our memory, our collective memory… We don’t have to reinvent the wheel at every stage. Every generation shouldn’t have to do it.”
— Saleem Kidwai
[1951-2021]
Series I is arranged in three sub series by theme.
Jayashree (she/her) is an award-winning independent filmmaker based in Bangalore. She has written, produced and directed for international television, radio, feature and documentary film. Co-founder of the QAMRA Archival Project at NLSIU, her work has focused on the intersection between Gender, Sexuality, Law and Public health. View her work here.
Mukul (he/him) is a filmmaker, cinematographer and academic based in Mumbai, India. Specialised in documentary films, he is the director of Vertical City, Nostalgia for the Future and Snapshots from a Family Album. Mukul did the camerawork for Many People Many Desires, A Human Question as well as for a number of the interviews in this collection.
Girjashanker (he/him) is a sound designer, location recordist and cinematographer. A year 2000 graduate from SRFTI, he has worked on several Hollywood, Bollywood feature films and documentary projects including Jayashree’s previous film, Many People Many Desires. He currently lives in Delhi and runs a boutique sound design studio called Depot Records. He also owns and runs an acoustically designed live performance venue/restaurant called Depot48 and a newly opened Indian Eatery called Godaam. He did the camerawork and sound for multiple interviews in this collection.
Siddharth (he/him) is a lawyer and legal academic. He is currently a Scientia PhD candidate at the Faculty of Law & Justice, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. His PhD research focuses on the legal regulation of hate speech online in contemporary India. His academic work focuses on themes related to public law, law and society, law and media, and South Asia.
Amrita (she/her) is a web developer, designer, and a data visualiser. She has been involved in the development of Nrityagram’s web presence which tries to bring the Nrityagram experience online through virtual reality. She has also worked on the development of an online archive to document the queer movement in India.
Namita (she/her) is a writer, lawyer, feminist, and coordinator and editor for GenderIT.org. She is also the co-curator of the Bangalore Queer Film Festival (BQFF) and co-founder of the online video archive Pad.ma (Public Access Digital Media Archive).
Gowthaman (he/him) is a professor of law and PhD scholar at Brandeis University, Massachusetts. He has worked with the Alternative Law Forum and the Centre for Social Justice, and was part of the legal team that represented Voices Against 377.
Cite as: Visual Material of the 377 Litigation Process, T. Jayashree Video Collection, QAMRA Archival Project at NLSIU, TJAV01.00. Accessed on: dd/mm/yy.