In this episode of Out Takes we bring you two extended highlights of interviews with a filmmaker and a distributor in the LGBTIQ filmmaking space. First up is Onir, a fearless gay Indian filmmaker. Onir has been making queer films in India for over 20 years, including My Brother…Nikhil which was one of the first mainstream Hindi films to deal with AIDS and same-sex relationships, and the films I Am, and Pine Cone. Our interview with Onir arose from a short film he co-directed titled Nandini which was screened in the recent Indian Film Festival in Melbourne [see Out Takes episode 13 August 2024]. Our extended discussion covered many more topics including challenging the classification of his films and responding to his film script being banned by the military. Our second interview was with Naomi Bennett, CEO of Lesflicks, an online streaming platform dedicated to sapphic stories on film. We interviewed Naomi in celebration of Pride Month [see Out Takes episode 26 June 2024]. Naomi generously shares her insights about how the LGBTIQ community can and should support its queer filmmakers, and how filmmakers can learn more about connecting their films to their audience.

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