Review
JUCHITÁN: QUEER PARADISE
Directed by Patricio Henríquez
DANGEROUS LIVING: COMING OUT IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD
Narrated by Janeane Garofalo
Directed by John Scagliotti
Wednesday, June 2
Room 162, Murray Fraser Hall (U of C)
In May 2001, 52 men stepped aboard the Queen Boat disco in Cairo, a floating nightclub on the Nile and one of few regular hangouts for Cairo’s GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans-gendered) population. Shortly thereafter, they were all arrested, and since Egypt has no laws against homosexuality (word is, it doesn’t exist), the men were allegedly tortured, tried, convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for "the habitual practice of debauchery."
Ashraf Zanati, one of the men arrested in the now infamous "Cairo 52" scandal, is one of the many voices in director John Scagliotti’s 2003 documentary, Dangerous Living: Coming Out In The Developing World. Narrated by Janeane Garofalo, the film travels to five different continents to explore the lives of GLBT populations in countries as diverse as Kenya, Thailand, Honduras, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Using Cairo 52 as the film’s centrepiece, Dangerous Living connects the western rise of queer activism and human rights to upheavals in today’s less developed countries, where homosexuality is traditionally outlawed, ignored or severely punished.
While it’s impossible to gather significant detail on a mosaic of cultures in one hour, Dangerous Living is one of the first documentaries to chronicle a growing global movement to end atrocities against GLBT populations, featuring some unique voices we would not otherwise hear about. They include Honduras’ Dilcia Molina, who braved a gay pride parade without covering her face and paid the price when her son was attacked and she was threatened with rape to "take the lesbian out of her." Kenya’s Rodney Lutalo, who like Cairo’s Zanati later found asylum in the West, was imprisoned and beaten for his efforts in diversity education. The list of horrors goes on, along with a few more triumphant stories such as that of Thailand’s Painya Jaroenphoen, a transgendered athlete who became a national hero in kickboxing.
For the most part, Dangerous Living is a good reminder of the equally positive and negative impacts that the western gay rights movement has had around the world, including countries devastated by AIDS and the stigmas associated with it. In between slow-moving shots of gay pride parades and candid interviews, the video takes the time to identify some of the factors reducing isolation and abuse in these countries, such as increased Internet and media access, without growing tired in length.
On the flip side of Dangerous Living is Montreal filmmaker Patricio Henríquez’s 2002 award-winnomg Juchitán: Queer Paradise, a captivating look at the gay-positive community of Juchitán in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. According to a bizarre legend, God gave the town’s patron saint San Vincente Ferrer "a bag full of queers" in order to distribute them evenly throughout Latin America, but a whole bunch of them fell out in Juchitán. The video of this rather matriarchal community, where gender roles and "machismo" are otherwise traditionally defined, offers up an entirely utopian perspective, where the GLBT population is fully integrated, accepted and respected by both residents and their straight mayor (the latter praises queers for being in tune with male and female roles). Considering its far less tolerant villages only miles away (the town borders on Guatemala), Juchitán could be voted in as the gay twilight zone of Mexico.
Featuring some spirited mariachi music and intimate shots of friendly discussions and fiestas, Henríquez has created an uplifting exposé free from being didactic. Sometimes bordering on a tourism video (take note, Juchitán is not the westernized, ideal hotspot for gay nightlife), Henríquez fortunately dives into the ups and downs of being queer and/or less monogamous in this society, including the struggle for self-acceptance in the Christian faith. Never presenting itself as the perfect haven for gay life, the video exposes isolated incidents such as the murder of the town’s most notorious drag queen, shot to death while trying to break up a brawl and the town’s resulting efforts to stop intolerance through education, discussion and support at local queer events. While Juchitán’s residents are never quite sure why they have become notorious for their tolerance, Henríquez gives us a charming model that simply works. |
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