Bodies Of Desire is a beautiful short film exploring eroticism through the lens of queer south-Asians. It describes itself as “videopoetry” and uses sumptuous visuals of four queer lovers to accompany a spoken-word poem, written by Varsha Panikar, who also co-directed the film. The poem itself is part of a larger series by Panikar.

Varsha Panikardescribes the creative process on her website: “Bodies of Desire was originally conceived as a sketch-poetry book, as a sketch-poetry series on Instagram but as I kept adding to the series, it transformed into something that went a little deeper and evolved into a means for me to tell stories of endearment and passion, the kind that delves into themes of identity, desire, curiosity, discovery, sensuality and intimacy; and looking at it outside the context of sex and letting it become an expression and exploration of rediscovering yourself, through your desires, and through intimacy. It was the same with the film. I wanted to create a portrait of intimacy, of longing, of desire, of embrace, and capture moments amongst lovers where only they exist, and the rest of the world becomes background noise.

“As a queer artist, I believe there is an almost tangible validation in seeing people who love as you do on screen, and I really wanted to portray the kind of love that I could relate to, the kind of couples I knew and was craving to see in films for a long time.”

The cast of the film was mostly made up of non-trained actors. The performers went through an extended casting process which included and intimacy workshop, choreography and several rehearsals. All cast and crew participated in the intimacy workshop. Panikar told Directors Notes: “We had a diverse group of people from various backgrounds and identities, and one notable thing that everybody discovered through the workshop, was a certain fluidity most of them felt in their own sexuality which they hadn’t expected but were quick to embrace, and that is the thing with intimacy and self-discovery. It is ever evolving.”

Panikar and Nawad deliberately shot in a 4:3 ratio as a creative choice.

Description From Vimeo:

“Adapted from Varsha Panikar’s anthology by the same name, Bodies of Desire is an award winning videopoetry created by queer south-Asian cast and crew. The film that captures four sets of lovers in moments of embrace, while the poet takes us on their journey of rediscovering love, passion and identity.

“‘Bodies of Desire’ was included as one of the #FiveFilmsForFreedom 2021, and has been officially selected and screened at over 42 film festivals so far, including Fringe Fest (UK), Outfest LA 2021(US), BFI Flare(UK), Berlin Commercials, Zebra Poetry Festival, to name a few. Bodies Of Desire won Special Jury Award for The Best International Short at RIO Festival De Cinema LGBTQIA+ 2021; received Honourable Mention at 24fps International Short Film Festival. It won Best Music Video at Global Indian Film Festival 2021. The film has also been curated by Nowness, Nowness Asia, GirlsInFilm, Otherness Archive and Directors Notes.”‘Bodies of Desire’ was included as one of the #FiveFilmsForFreedom 2021, and has been officially selected and screened at over 42 film festivals so far, including Fringe Fest (UK), Outfest LA 2021(US), BFI Flare(UK), Berlin Commercials, Zebra Poetry Festival, to name a few. Bodies Of Desire won Special Jury Award for The Best International Short at RIO Festival De Cinema LGBTQIA+ 2021; received Honourable Mention at 24fps International Short Film Festival. It won Best Music Video at Global Indian Film Festival 2021. The film has also been curated by Nowness, Nowness Asia, GirlsInFilm, Otherness Archive and Directors Notes.”

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: INDIA

CREW
Poetry, Screenplay & Voice : Varsha Panikar
Director(s) : Varsha Panikar & Saad Nawab
Cinematographer & Colourist : Kaushal Shah
Producer(s): Asawari Jagushte, Neha Vyas
Co-Producer(s) : Varsha Panikar, Saad Nawab, Kaushal Shah
Editor : Cornelia Nicolăeasa, Romania
Composition and Mixing : Mark Spanoudakis, Greece
Executive Producer : Virender Singh
Styling : Omkar Sharma
Production : Eshita Chandna / Dhruvin Doshi / Shataakshi Verma
Assistant to Cinematographer: Siddharth Dutta
Focus Puller: Rahul Gaikwad
Grading Studio : Nube Cirrus
In association with : Anat

CAST
Shreya Sarkar (Kate)
Omkar Sharma (Adam)
Suruj Rajkhowa (Lovegood)
Vaishakh Sudhakaran (Olly)
Meheka CL (Electra)
Doel Rakshit (Aleya)
Sachin Das Gupta (Varun)
Sushant Khomane (Su)
Smriti Tiwari (Maya)

Track : The Blue Flame _ All rights reserved by Mark Spanoudaki