[Reader-list] Students expelled for making film on homosexuality

[Nuaiman ,]

 Students expelled for making film on homosexuality *
>From R Gopakumar DH News Service Thiruvananthapuram:

A Catholic Church-run mass communications college in Kottayam has stirred a
hornet's nest by expelling five students for making a film on homosexuality.

The students are all fourth semester BA (multimedia) students of the St
Joseph's College of Communications at Changanassery.

The incident brings alive the raging worldwide debate on homosexuality to
the church circles in Kerala.
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Neither the expelled students nor the authorities were readily willing to
comment. Prathyush, one of the expelled students, told Deccan Herald that
four of them had acted in the five-minute short film titled Secret Minds.

The film depicting homosexuality was directed by an MA (film and TV) student
Jeo Baby. He claimed that it was mainly intended for an inter-collegiate
film festival here.

The college management, however, felt that the film had transgressed the
limits of decency and moral values that the college stood for and would have
misled youths. The college authorities further said that the students
misused the campus and college hostel premises for making the film and had
also acted entirely nude in it. The management made clear its stand in the
showcause notice issued to the students. The students were first served a
showcause notice on March 23 and 27 and later expelled on April 2 on finding
that their replies were unsatisfactory.

However, Prathyush who was the only student willing to speak denied these
allegations and said that they had exercised only their freedom of
ex-pression. The film was also well within the confines of the course to
which they were admitted. Also, they had acted only partially nude as
required by the script.

"In any case, the film was not for public viewing but for a specific
festival audience. They are just creating unnecessary fuss," he said.

The students registered a complaint against the college with the Mahatma
Gandhi University's grievance cell and also forwarded the notice which
contained the charges against them.

When contacted, college director Fr Sebastian refused to comment saying the
issue was not over and was "undergoing certain processes".

However, experts see the incident as an offshoot of the lack of theological
guidance in the Church on the issue of homosexuality.
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