Founded 2014 | ||
Language Bilingual Burmese and English Website | ||
&PROUD (And Proud) is an organisation in Yangon, Myanmar, that organises LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay Bi, Transgender, Intersex) art and culture events. &PROUD is best known for their yearly &PROUD Yangon LGBTI Film Festival, which takes place in the last weekend of January. &PROUD furthermore organises a yearly photo exhibition, Rainbow Reels film making workshops, and &PROUD on the road, which takes film screenings to other cities, colleges and universities in Myanmar.
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&PROUD was founded in 2014 by Colors Rainbow (the main LGBT rights organisation in Myanmar), YG Events, Abadi Art, and a number of individuals in Yangon. It is funded by a number of international donors, including embassies and UN organisations and NGOs.
Film Festival
The &PROUD Yangon LGBTI Film Festival had its first edition from 14 to 16 November 2014 at the French Institute in Yangon. The festival showcases films on Asian LGBTI lives, and combines film screenings with debates, performances and parties.
The 2015 edition was moved from November to January 2016 due to the elections in Myanmar. It was hosted at the French Institute between January 28 to 31 and attracted 3500 visitors over four days.
For the third edition, the festival will return to the French Institute from January 26–29, 2017.
&PROUD Film Festival is a founding member of the Asia-Pacific Queer Film Festival Alliance (APQFFA).
&PROUD Photo
Part of &PROUD's main activities is a yearly photo exhibition at Myanmar Deitta gallery that coincides with the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) on May 17. In the run up to the exhibition, a photo competition is organised, welcoming photos that portrait the Myanmar LGBT community in a positive light. The week-long exhibition combines the best photos from the competition with an exhibition from a leading Southeast Asian photographer
In 2014, Vietnamese photographer Maika Elan's work "The Pink Choice" was exhibited. Elan's work was one of the winners in the World Press Photo 2013. The 2015 edition showed "Continuum" from Malaysian photographer kG Krishnan on Kuala Lumpur Transgender women. The 2016 edition showcased work from Vlad Sohkin, titled "Being Gay in Papua New Guinea"