Saturday, May 31, 2014

“Painting the Spectrum 10” to premiere Gavin Ramotar's “Antiman” set in Guyana; opens this Sunday



SASOD's annual lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) film festival, dubbed “Painting the Spectrum” opens this Sunday, June 1, with an exciting programme of films. In its 10th year, the film festival will be staged at a new venue, Dutch Bottle Cafe on 10 North Road (between Light and Cummings Streets), Bourda, in Georgetown.
“Painting the Spectrum 10” promises ten nights of films through the month from June 1 to 29 with screenings every Tuesday and Thursday, in addition to the first and last Sunday. The dates to remember are June 1, 3, 5, 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26 and 29.
'Spectrum 10' will open with two documentaries, the first - Jessica’s Journey - a local documentary produced by SASOD, chronicles experiences of discrimination, violence and her struggle for acceptance from family, peers and society for a Guyanese transgender advocate. The second documentary – The New Black – was donated to SASOD by the director of the film, Yoruba Richen. The New Black tells the story of how the African-American community is struggling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights.
In addition to three local documentaries produced by SASOD, documentaries, short and feature films from Argentina, Belgium, India, France, Jamaica and the United States of America will be shown during the festival. The highlight of the festival will be the world premiere of Guyanese-American Gavin Ramotar's film, “Antiman” which is set in Guyana. Ramotar is a recent graduate with a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Television Production from New York University where he produced the highly-anticipated narrative short drama as his thesis film. “Antiman” will screen on June 26, alongside “Spectrum Night.” Expressions through poetry, dance, song, music and fashion are encouraged on the penultimate night, “Spectrum Night,” which will be held on Thursday, June 26.
The film festival’s goal is edutainment: educating while entertaining audiences and the wider public, by stimulating discussion and debate about LGBT issues.
The festival concludes with the customary ‘painting the spectrum,’ where participants on the last night will be encouraged to leave their marks of support, messages of hope and inspiration for a society which is more embracing of sexual and gender diversity.
The films slated to be shown over the 10 nights highlight homophobic and transphobic discrimination and violence, struggles for equality and acceptance, mental health issues, influences of societal and cultural forces, resilience and resistance.
Painting the Spectrum 10 will take viewers on an astonishing passage into the world of sexual and gender diversities. It will also seek to arouse in all their true humanity by taking viewers into the lives of persons who struggle daily to be accepted in a world which is still rife with inequalities, especially for LGBT people and other minorities.
The film festival is absolutely FREE and open to all. All firms are intended for mature audiences. Person must be 18 years and over to attend. SASOD sources its films from the kind donations of individuals, producers and directors worldwide.

“Painting the Spectrum 10” to premiere Gavin Ramotar's “Antiman” set in Guyana; opens this Sunday



SASOD's annual lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) film festival, dubbed “Painting the Spectrum” opens this Sunday, June 1, with an exciting programme of films. In its 10th year, the film festival will be staged at a new venue, Dutch Bottle Cafe on 10 North Road (between Light and Cummings Streets), Bourda, in Georgetown.
“Painting the Spectrum 10” promises ten nights of films through the month from June 1 to 29 with screenings every Tuesday and Thursday, in addition to the first and last Sunday. The dates to remember are June 1, 3, 5, 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26 and 29.
'Spectrum 10' will open with two documentaries, the first - Jessica’s Journey - a local documentary produced by SASOD, chronicles experiences of discrimination, violence and her struggle for acceptance from family, peers and society for a Guyanese transgender advocate. The second documentary – The New Black – was donated to SASOD by the director of the film, Yoruba Richen. The New Black tells the story of how the African-American community is struggling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights.
In addition to three local documentaries produced by SASOD, documentaries, short and feature films from Argentina, Belgium, India, France, Jamaica and the United States of America will be shown during the festival. The highlight of the festival will be the world premiere of Guyanese-American Gavin Ramotar's film, “Antiman” which is set in Guyana. Ramotar is a recent graduate with a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Television Production from New York University where he produced the highly-anticipated narrative short drama as his thesis film. “Antiman” will screen on June 26, alongside “Spectrum Night.” Expressions through poetry, dance, song, music and fashion are encouraged on the penultimate night, “Spectrum Night,” which will be held on Thursday, June 26.
The film festival’s goal is edutainment: educating while entertaining audiences and the wider public, by stimulating discussion and debate about LGBT issues.
The festival concludes with the customary ‘painting the spectrum,’ where participants on the last night will be encouraged to leave their marks of support, messages of hope and inspiration for a society which is more embracing of sexual and gender diversity.
The films slated to be shown over the 10 nights highlight homophobic and transphobic discrimination and violence, struggles for equality and acceptance, mental health issues, influences of societal and cultural forces, resilience and resistance.
Painting the Spectrum 10 will take viewers on an astonishing passage into the world of sexual and gender diversities. It will also seek to arouse in all their true humanity by taking viewers into the lives of persons who struggle daily to be accepted in a world which is still rife with inequalities, especially for LGBT people and other minorities.
The film festival is absolutely FREE and open to all. All firms are intended for mature audiences. Person must be 18 years and over to attend. SASOD sources its films from the kind donations of individuals, producers and directors worldwide.

“Painting the Spectrum 10” to premiere Gavin Ramotar's “Antiman” set in Guyana; opens this Sunday



SASOD's annual lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) film festival, dubbed “Painting the Spectrum” opens this Sunday, June 1, with an exciting programme of films. In its 10th year, the film festival will be staged at a new venue, Dutch Bottle Cafe on 10 North Road (between Light and Cummings Streets), Bourda, in Georgetown.
“Painting the Spectrum 10” promises ten nights of films through the month from June 1 to 29 with screenings every Tuesday and Thursday, in addition to the first and last Sunday. The dates to remember are June 1, 3, 5, 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26 and 29.
'Spectrum 10' will open with two documentaries, the first - Jessica’s Journey - a local documentary produced by SASOD, chronicles experiences of discrimination, violence and her struggle for acceptance from family, peers and society for a Guyanese transgender advocate. The second documentary – The New Black – was donated to SASOD by the director of the film, Yoruba Richen. The New Black tells the story of how the African-American community is struggling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights.
In addition to three local documentaries produced by SASOD, documentaries, short and feature films from Argentina, Belgium, India, France, Jamaica and the United States of America will be shown during the festival. The highlight of the festival will be the world premiere of Guyanese-American Gavin Ramotar's film, “Antiman” which is set in Guyana. Ramotar is a recent graduate with a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Television Production from New York University where he produced the highly-anticipated narrative short drama as his thesis film. “Antiman” will screen on June 26, alongside “Spectrum Night.” Expressions through poetry, dance, song, music and fashion are encouraged on the penultimate night, “Spectrum Night,” which will be held on Thursday, June 26.
The film festival’s goal is edutainment: educating while entertaining audiences and the wider public, by stimulating discussion and debate about LGBT issues.
The festival concludes with the customary ‘painting the spectrum,’ where participants on the last night will be encouraged to leave their marks of support, messages of hope and inspiration for a society which is more embracing of sexual and gender diversity.
The films slated to be shown over the 10 nights highlight homophobic and transphobic discrimination and violence, struggles for equality and acceptance, mental health issues, influences of societal and cultural forces, resilience and resistance.
Painting the Spectrum 10 will take viewers on an astonishing passage into the world of sexual and gender diversities. It will also seek to arouse in all their true humanity by taking viewers into the lives of persons who struggle daily to be accepted in a world which is still rife with inequalities, especially for LGBT people and other minorities.
The film festival is absolutely FREE and open to all. All firms are intended for mature audiences. Person must be 18 years and over to attend. SASOD sources its films from the kind donations of individuals, producers and directors worldwide.

Friday, May 30, 2014

Painting the Spectrum 10: SASOD's LGBT Film Festival 2014



Schedule of Films

Date:  June 1 -  29, 2014
Dates to Remember: June 1, 3, 5, 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26 and 29 (first and last Sundays and every Tuesday and Thursday in June)
From: 6 pm each night
Venue: Dutch Bottle Café, 10 North Road (between Light and Cummings Streets), Bourda, Georgetown
Admission: FREE!!!

All films are intended for mature audiences.
Persons must be 18 yrs and older to attend.



Sunday, June 1 

Jessica’s Journey – Documentary
Origin: Guyana
Duration: 8 minutes

Jessica’s Journey highlights experiences of discrimination, violence and the struggle for acceptance faced by a Guyanese trans-woman.




The New Black – Documentary
Origin: USA
Duration: 80 minutes


The New Black is a documentary that tells the story of how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights. The film documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black community’s institutional pillar—the black church and reveals the Christian right wing’s strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda. The New Black takes viewers into the pews and onto the streets and provides a seat at the kitchen table as it tells the story of the historic fight to win marriage equality in Maryland and charts the evolution of this divisive issue in the black community. 



See trailer: The New Black 

Tuesday, June 3 


Electric Indigo
Origin: Belgium
Duration: 24mins
"Electric Indigo" is a short film written and directed by Jean-Julien Collette and produced by Laurent Denis - Cookies Films. It is sometimes complicated for a little girl to face peer pressure and becoming aware of her own identity, especially that she never knew her mother and that the only reference is the love of two heterosexual fathers united by the bonds of a “non-carnal” marriage.

See trailer: Electric Indigo 


















Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement – Documentary                                                Origin: USA 
Duration: 61 minutes


In the closeted 1960s, two young women met and fell in love — and so began the extraordi-nary tale of Edie and Thea, whose engagement to each other would span more than forty years. This is a lovingly crafted documentary in which Edia and Thea recount how their improbable romance ignited a lifelong journey around the world and through history. Though touched by events like the civil rights movement and the Stonewall riots, Edie and Thea’s relationship transcends politics and is a shining example of love’s ability to endure.


See trailer: Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement 



Thursday, June 5


The String (French) – Movie
Origin: France
Duration: 90 minutes

Class, cultural and sexual differences are explored in this torridly romantic drama co-starring an Italian superstar from the past: Claudia Cardinale. Set in arid Tunisia, tall, quiet Malik (Antonin Stahly), a 30-year-old Parisian architect, returns to his homeland after the death of his father. He's greeted warmly by his over-bearing, petulant mother (Cardinale) and is immediately confronted with her expectation that he stay and get married. This now strange world of his youth, his mother's pressure and his barely hidden homosexuality set off anxiety attacks in Malik, who finally finds relief when he meets the darkly handsome handyman, Balil (Salim Kechiouche, Full Speed, Grande école, 3 Dancing Slaves). They begin a tentative relationship, but Islamic mores, a still class conscience society, and the ever-presence of his mother threaten their young love. Le fil is a forbidden love story as well as a character study of people lost in rapidly changing cultures. Don't miss this engaging, insightful and undenia-bly sexy drama.


    See trailer: The String




Tuesday, June 10
Venus Boys – Documentary
Origin: Germany
Duration: 103 minutes
A FILM JOURNEY THROUGH A UNIVERSE OF FEMALE MASCULINITY
A legendary Drag King Night in New York is the point of departure for an odyssey to transgendered worlds, where women become men - some for a night, others for their whole lives. What motivates them? What changes take place? What do they dream of? The drag kings of New York meet in clubs and change lustfully into their male alter egos, parodying them and exploring male eroticism and power strategies. In London we see women experiment with hormones to become new men and "cyborgs". Venue Boyz - Masculinity and transformation as performance, subversion or existential necessity; an intimate film about people who create intermediate sexual identities.






Thursday, June 12
XXY – Documentary
Origin: Argentina
Duration: 87 minutes 


Alex is not like other girls. She is a 15-year-old with a secret, one that no other can claim. Her parents keep her hidden away at a coastal town amongst the dunes of the shoreline, buying time before they must decide on a life-threatening operation. When old family friend and plastic surgeon Ramiro arrives with his teenage son Álvaro, Alex begins to realise that his visit could change her life forever. As the parents wrestle with the complications that will arise as Alex reaches adulthood, Alex and Alvaro become close, their relationship causing tensions amongst the locals. However, as the parents battle it out to instil a sense of open-mindedness amongst their society, it is the children who prove themselves to be flexible in understanding the sexual leanings and complexities of others.



See trailer: XXY 



Tuesday, June 17

And the Unclaimed – Documentary
Origin: India
Duration: 62 minutes

On February 21, 2011, two young girls committed suicide together in Nandigram, one of the interior villages in West Bengal. As the story unfolded we came to know of their love affair, and non-acceptance of the village community as well as their families. To deal with such ‘abnormality’, one of the girls was married off in a hurry, which perhaps pushed them towards the end of the road – committing suicide. But their death did not end societal non-acceptance, even after death their dead bodies lay unclaimed in the police morgue for several days. Through the last letter by one of the girls that survived them and tried to tell us the story of love and loathing, asked their parents to cremate them together, which did not happen. The unclaimed bodies were disposed of by the police, unattained, uncared for.





See trailer: And the Unclaimed




Thursday, June 19
Selina’s Voice – Documentary
Origin: Guyana
Duration: 11 minutes
 
Selina’s Voice is a documentary recounting Selina’s violent transphobic attack. Selina, an outreach officer was violently attached at a hot spot one night by a group of random people. Selina received multiple stab wounds but lived to share her story with others. She is now an advocate for equal rights and justice for all members of the LGBT community.


Taboo Yardies – Documentary
Origin: Jamaica
Duration: 72 minutes
Taboo Yardies, is a film that captures the violence against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender individuals in Jamaica and the violation of one’s human rights; the socio-economics, socio-political, mental health and the intergenerational trans-Atlantic transmission of homophobia. Taboo Yardies will provide a unique visual experience of how violence gets generated on one side of the Atlantic and perpetrated, preserved and re-enacted on the other side (in the US).

See trailer: Taboo Yardies 


Tuesday, June 24

Sade’s Story – Documentary
Origin: Guyana
Duration: 12 minutes

Sade, a fashion designer shares her story about discrimination and injustice. She was denied many jobs because of who she is, she was verbally and physically abused for expressing herself. Sade’s Story is one about rising above discrimination and living your dreams.





The Abominable Crime – Documentary
Origin: Jamaica          
Duration: 66 minutes

The Abominable Crime is a documentary that explores the culture of homophobia in Jamaica through the eyes of gay Jamaicans who are forced to choose between their homeland and their lives after their sexual orientations are exposed.

This is a story about a mother's love for her child and an activist's love for his country - and the stakes are life and death. Simone, a young lesbian mother, survives being shot outside of her home my anti-gay gunmen. She must choose between living in hiding with her daughter in Jamaica or traveling alone to seek safety and asylum abroad. Maurice, Jamaica's leaving gay-rights activist, is outed shortly after filing a lawsuit to overturn Jamaica's anti-sodomy law. He escapes to Canada, but decides to return to continue his                                                                                       activism.

See trailer: The Abominable Crime



Thursday, June 26
Jessica Journey - Documentary 
Origin: Guyana
Duration: 8 minutes

Jessica’s Journey highlights experiences of discrimination, violence and the struggle for acceptance faced by a Guyanese trans-woman.







Antiman – Narrative Short Film (Drama)
Origin: Guyana
Duration: 19 minutes

A young boy must prove his masculinity to his father while he pines for a young man in the homophobic Guyanese countryside. ANTIMAN is a film about self-discovery and masculinity in the Caribbean. Anil, an introverted young boy who is pressured by his abusive father, Max, to become a skillful cricket player the way he himself was years before.  Although skilled in the game, Anil refuses to play and takes refuge is his love for Dano, an older boy in the village.  In order to attend the local masquerade and see the boy he pines for, Anil must win the Cricket tournament. 

Trailer: Antiman -coming soon.









Sunday, June 29 
Paris Is Burning – Documentary
Origin: USA
Duration: 76 minutes

The film explores the elaborately-structured ball competitions in which contestants, adhering to a very specific category or theme, must "walk" (much like a fashion model's runway) and subsequently be judged on criteria including the "realness" of their drag, the beauty of their clothing and their dancing ability.

See trailer: Paris is Burning 




















The festival concludes with... 
                    PAINTING OF THE SPECTRUM!