10 YEARS GAY AFRICA

GAY AFRICA celebrates! Ten years... a decade in which the programme has become an international platform for films made in Africa which cannot are hardly be screened on the continent itself. Extra focus on Uganda, where gay activist David Kato was brutally murdered this year. AITP dedicates 10 YEARS GAY AFRICA to him and to all of his fellow activists fighting for equal rights of LGBT people (lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender).

For the tenth anniversary, Rudy Chotoe, GAY AFRICA programmer of AITP, selected a series of breathtaking films and documentaries. He also organized a special 10 YEARS AFRICA GAY DEBATE with prominent speakers from the Dutch and international gay scene such as the South African filmmaker and "visual activist 'Zanele Muholi.

Dennis Boutkan President of COC Amsterdam wrote a moving article for the occasion: BLACK IN the article PINK / PINK IN BLACK: 10 YEARS OF GAY AFRICA (see below).

PROGRAMME GAY AFRICA
Thu Oct 6 / 19:00 / Ketelhuis 2
OUT IN AFRICA Johnny Symons
OUGANDA AU NOM DE DIEU Dominique Mesmin
Thu Oct 6 / 19:15 / Ketelhuis 1
THE SISTERHOOD Roger Horn
DIFFICULT LOVE Zanele Muholi Q&A WITH DIRECTOR
Thu Oct 6 / 21:30 / Ketelhuis 2
A KIND OF LANGUAGE Phybia Ntombinkosi Dlamini
WAITED FOR Nerina Penzhorn Q&A WITH DIRECTOR
Thu Oct 6 / 21:30 / Ketelhuis 3
GUN HILL ROAD Rashaad Ernesto Green
Thu Oct 6 / 21:30 / Ketelhuis 3
SILENT STORIES Hanne Phlypo & Catherine Vuylsteke
ANGEL Sebastiano d'Ayala Valva
Thu Oct 6 / 23:00 / Ketelhuis Café
PINK CAKE PARTY
Sa Oct 8 / 17:00 / Ketelhuis 3
THE SISTERHOOD Roger Horn
DIFFICULT LOVE Zanele Muholi Q&A WITH DIRECTOR
Sa Oct 8 / 16:00 / MC Studio
DEBATE: FROM VISIBILITY TO VULNERABILITY
Met vertoning van de short BREAKING THE CHAINS Alyssa Eisenstein
Zo 9 okt / 21:15 / Ketelhuis 3
GUN HILL ROAD Rashaad Ernesto Green


BLACK IN PINK / PINK IN BLACK: GAY AFRICA 10 YEARS ANNIVERSARY
Dennis Boutkan
Chairman COC Amsterdam

Born from a Dutch mother and an Antillean father ànd being homosexual makes me feel very connected to the GAY AFRICA program of AITP Film Festival. My personal background teaches me that identity and background do matter. Sometimes unwanted, sometimes unconscious. On the streets, in relationships, in friendships, in the workplace, and in social debates. As free and open we can discuss homosexuality here in the Netherlands, it is far from obvious for Africa.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, has been repeatable comparing Gays with ‘dogs’ and ‘pigs’ since the ‘90’s. Unfortunately such painful expressions aren’t exceptional for African political leaders. Regularly homosexuality gets heavily qualified as ‘unnatural’, ‘western’ or ‘perverse’. In such stark terms of hate rhetoric against sexual minorities, African LGBT’s (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexuals and Trans-genders) are left to fend for themselves. In 38 African countries homosexuality is still illegal and LGBT’s can be persecuted without a fair trial.

The horrific effects of these hate-rhetoric assumptions of African leaders and media are deeply felt here in the Netherlands. Last January, in freezing Amsterdam, we gathered at the Gay monument in a spontaneous wake for the brutally murder of Ugandan LGBT rights activist David Kato. Many of us were deeply shocked, and mourned not only on his violent death, also for the systematically oppression of African LGBT’s. The uprising of homophobic violence in our own liberal Amsterdam suddenly seems such a minor detail. In a cynical way you could say – as for a positive side effect- that exactly those horrific actions in Africa draw the attention of Human Rights Organizations and activists for defending the rights of sexual minorities. It provokes international protest and solidarity.

Despite the difficulty to guarantee safety for African LGBT’s yet, some positive developments are happening. In its already 10 years of existence, the GAY AFRICA program is one direct visualization of this development. GAY AFRICA shows besides important stories of struggle and oppression also stories of love, connection and hope, in which homosexuality is of all times and all cultures, and not some novelty of ‘the west’.

GAY AFRICA shows us a hidden world for general public, both from Africa as well as from the African diasporas. For giving a Gay Program such a strong exposure in a regular film festival it even brings LGBT issues under the attention of a mostly straight audience. A unique example of gay-straight alliance for which I compliment the festival organization!

COC Amsterdam aims strongly for visibility and open dialogue about homosexuality amongst the Surinam, the Antillean and African communities in the Netherlands. Gays from those communities are a double minority and lesbians and transgenders even a triple minority. Gay ànd straight minorities in the Netherlands happens to be the main audience of film festival AITP. For both groups the films mean recognition and visibility and stimulate consciousness and activism in those groups. And I do hope that this way the fight of African LGBT’s also becomes ours. For staging African (diaspora) LGBT filmmakers, writers, actors and activists, GAY AFRICA became an important platform for a wrapped-in-cinema-message to the emancipation of black LGBT’s. And again I compliment this special and unique film program!

COC Amsterdam congratulates Africa in the Picture with the 10th Anniversary of GAY AFRICA. The world counts many gay and lesbian film festivals, but none of them with such a unique program about LGBT and black identity. As a film program, GAY AFRICA can only become stronger and is facing a bright future. I hope this will also count for GAY AFRICA in the context of human rights of African LGBT’s on that wonderful scintillating continent.