No Easy Walk to Freedom

Filmed in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Lucknow and rural India, No Easy Walk to Freedom , a 90-minute documentary by Nancy Nicol, tells the story of the struggle to strike down section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalizes homosexuality. Told through the voices of lawyers, activists and community leaders, No Easy Walk to Freedom exposes human rights violations perpetrated under section 377 and documents the growth of queer organizing in India in the context of this historic legal battle to overturn a colonial-era law.

In 2001, the Naz Foundation, an HIV/AIDS non-governmental organization in Delhi, filed a petition against section 377, an 1861 British colonial law that criminalizes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.” In 2009, the Delhi High Court struck down section 377 in a precedent-setting ruling celebrated by activists, human rights and legal experts worldwide. Citing Nehru and Ambedkar, architects of the Indian constitution, the High Court upheld “constitutional morality” and equality over this colonial era law. However in December 2013, the Supreme Court of India set aside the 2009 verdict and upheld section 377, recriminalizing LGBT people in India. In an ironic twist of history, defenders of section 377 in India argued that decriminalizing homosexuality is “contrary to Indian culture,” and that “homosexuality represents western values.” In fact, homosexuality was never criminalized in India prior to the British, and pre-colonial societies in India were replete with diversity of gender identity/expression and sexual orientation. Section 377 in India was the first of such laws enacted by the British, which were later spread throughout the colonial empire. Today, this colonial legacy remains responsible for half of the laws that criminalize people on the grounds of sexual orientation, worldwide. No Easy Walk to Freedom is moving examination of the struggle to decriminalize homosexuality in contemporary India, told through the voices of HIV AIDS workers, queer activists, community leaders and legal experts. It is a history with far reaching implications for the struggle to remove these colonial era laws and to uphold lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender human rights worldwide. No Easy Walk  to Freedom © 2014 Intervention Video Inc www.noeasywalktofreedom.com No Easy Walk to Freedom, film production stills "There is no easy walk-over to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow again and before we reach the mountain tops of our desire." Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru  A Survey of Congress Politics No Easy Walk to Freedom 92 min. 2014 Producer / Director: Nancy Nicol Line Producer:  Pearl Sandhu Director of Photography: Shakeb Ahmed Production Manager: Gurbeen Bhasin Research & Production Assistant: Phyllis Waugh Editor: Nancy Nicol Assistant Editor: Kaija Siirala Assistant Line Producer: Sakaar Puri Second Assistant Editor: Adonay Guerrero Research consultation: Naisargi Dave Location Sound: Pratik Biswas Sound Supervisor and Mixer: Daniel Pellerin Mixing Facility: Theatre D Digital, The Royal On-Line Editor: Andrew Mandziuk On Line Facility: Fearless Films Music:  Toronto Table Ensemble Funded by: The Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Special thanks to the following organizations: Naz Foundation (India) Trust, Delhi. Milan Centre, Naz Foundation (India) Trust, Delhi. Lawyers Collective, Delhi. Naz Foundation International, Lucknow. Maan AIDS Foundation, Lucknow. Voices Against 377 Sangama, Bangalore Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore