Painting the Spectrum
Any SFC regulars planning to be in Guyana in June? SASOD (the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination) has announced Painting the Spectrum 2006, its second lesbian and gay film festival, to be hosted by the Sidewalk Cafe on Middle Street in Georgetown. (Read about last year's festival here.)
posted by Nicholas Laughlin at 8:38 PM
1 Comments:
Report from Week 1 of the SASOD Film festival, Georgetown, Guyana
How could I know if my boyfriend is gay? asked one
woman after seeing Brokeback Mountain. Brokeback
Mountain opened SASOD’s film festival and the audience
had different reactions to the film. Some people felt
that the story of unfulfilled love resonated with many
other couples who could not be together for one reason
or another, while others realized the difficulty faced
by people who tried to live heterosexual lives while
being gay. One woman said she thought the acting was
crap.
The documentary of Flowers from the Heartland dealt
with same sex marriages. One woman in the audience
cried throughout the film, she did not why she did.
Other people wondered what the fuss about gay marriage
was about, in a society in which less people are
marrying.
The comedy Eating Out raised questions about the
sexual desires and fulfilling them, posing questions
about the nature of fantasies and the exploration of
same sex encounters. Can a straight man enjoy a kiss
with another man? Is it that easy for a straight man
to have a sexual encounter with another man – even
with the woman of his desires encouraging him?
Better than Chocolate is a comedy which examined
women’s sexuality – lesbianism, relationships with
younger men, female masturbation, and the issues
around transsexualism. Transsexualism is often
confused with homosexuality, and some persons in the
audience empathized with the characther when she
insisted that “I am not a f..ing drag queen’. A woman
in the audience was annoyed that the transsexual
depicted feminitiy as passive in some instances in
when many women would not be.
The film Proteus brought home the history of
homophobia and the punishment of those who were
accused of sodomy. A sometimes homophobic employees of
the café did not realize that the legal penalties for
private business could be death and life imprisonment.
The South African shorts brought powerful glimpses of
lives of gay and lesbian South Africans. The story of
Reverend Nkuthola resonated with the audience. She
survived excommunication from her church, and then a
gang rape in which she was blamed. She became a
priest. Her words at the end..”.no prayers can change
what God created resonated with the audience, some of
whom spontaneously applauded. An expatriate worker was
surprised that the film festival was taking place,
given the homophobic comments he had witnessed, while
other people were very moved by all the films.
The feedback from the first week has been interesting.
One reporter expressed disappointment that he could
not find any SASOD members who would come out publicly
to say that they are not heterosexual, like the
subjects in the films.
One man said he found the south African shorts thought
provoking and felt that the issues should be discussed
after the films. Other people said that they would
prefer to go home since too much intellectual talk in
the night would spoil the night. This man also said he
had wondered whether the SASOD film festival would not
be a gathering at which people could come to hook up
for sex, and thereby reinforce the negativity
associated with the ‘gay lifestyle’ , but was relieved
to find that it did not appear so.. He agreed that he
would be returning for the other films,which will
continue Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for the rest
of June at Sidewalk Café.
_______________________________________________________
SASOD- Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination
http://www.geocities.com/sasod_guyana
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