York University prof’s new documentary follows struggle to decriminalize homosexuality in India

HEADLINES GAY FILM
TORONTO: York University professor and veteran filmmaker Nancy Nicol’s latest documentary, No Easy Walk to Freedom, will premiere June 1, 2014, as part of this year’s Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival. The film tells the story of the struggle to strike down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, decriminalizing homosexuality in contemporary India. 

Shot in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Lucknow and rural India, the film is told through the voices of lawyers, activists and community leaders, and exposes human rights violations perpetrated under Section 377, while documenting the growth of queer organizing in India to overturn a colonial-era law. 

The premiere will be followed by a panel including: 

Helen Kennedy, ED Egale Canada
Junic Wambya, ED of Freedom and Roam Uganda; 
Ponni Arasu, a lawyer with Voices Against 377; 
Nancy Nicol, director of No Easy Walk to Freedom. 

No Easy Walk to Freedom is one outcome from Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights, a large international research and documentary project led by Professor Nicol. Envisioning is comprised of 31 partners based in Africa, the Caribbean, India and Canada, working together to share resources, knowledge and research to advance LGBT human rights. 

What: No Easy Walk to Freedom film screening 
Where: TIFF Bell Lightbox, 363 King Street W. Toronto 
When: Sunday, June 1, 2014, at 12pm