Documentary on human rights violations to screen in Bengaluru

Crisscrossing across India, featuring in-depth interviews with advocates, activists and candid testimonies of gay and transgender persons, Breaking Free traces the history of challenge to the colonial anti-sodomy law Section 377. What starts off as a personal journey to unearth victimization of LGBT persons at the hands of the law and police, the film spirals out to be a journey of an emerging community, that is rising out of the shadows and emphatically stating there is ‘No Going Back!’

The film features several people from Bengaluru – activists Manohar Elavarthi, Sumathi Murthy and Vinay Chandran, lawyers B.T.Venkatesh, Arvind Narrain and Danish Sheikh, LGBT community members Chanakya and Sonu, and victims of Section 377 – Kokila and Madhumita, both of whom suffered a lot at the hands of police for no crime of theirs.

“Everyone, including the courts, have this constant refrain that Section 377 doesn’t affect the LGBT community as there are not enough convictions to prove it. Breaking Free provides concrete evidence how this draconian law has been used and misused repeatedly," says Rangayan.

“My film is an expose on the brutality faced by the LGBT community at the hands of police and blackmailers. It offers first person accounts of those who have been tortured, raped and blackmailed. It is time to tell the truth," he said.