Our first Interaction as an organisation with the British Council was during our Colombo PRIDE celebrations in 2009. We collaborated with the British Council on getting films from British Council South Africa to screen at the Celluloid Rainbows LGBTIQ film Festival (the name by which the Queer Film Festival was known as in those days).
One of the key and fondest memories I have at the British Council is the Queer Film Festival we had in the British Council auditorium in 2010 where we also screened a Sinhala movie with a Queer storyline, and we were able to get the director and one of the actors to participate in a discussion after.
I was very pleased with the relationship we built with the British Council which then proceeded to host the Film Festival and the Art and Photo exhibition at the British Council premises for two more years.
One of the key and fondest memories I have at the British Council is the Queer Film Festival we had in the British Council auditorium in 2010 where we also screened a Sinhala movie with a Queer storyline, and we were able to get the director and one of the actors to participate in a discussion after. The Auditorium was filled to capacity and we had a very good set up for the whole film festival. This was also the year that the Police received a complaint against Colombo PRIDE’s art & photo exhibition also held at the British Council. The British Council protected us and held fast on the issues that came up and we were very grateful for that.
The British Council in Sri Lanka is in a unique position to support the LGBTIQ community not just in Colombo but in Kandy and Jaffna as well. We would like to see the British Council collaborating with EQUAL GROUND to hold the queer film festival for example, in cities out of Colombo and include a mentoring program encouraging queer community members to utilise the British Council spaces as a queer-friendly, safe space for discussions, storytelling, reading, drama and other activities. There must be more programs targeting the LGBTIQ community.
