Spectra Speaks
As a follow up to my last piece about how media can help facilitate “coming out” or facilitating important conversations about sexuality over the holidays, I’ve compiled a list 10 of my picks for books, film, and music created by queer people of color that would make excellent gifts! If you’re an ally who’s interested in learning more about the diverse landscape of LGBT (people of color), this list is a great starting point for you too. Enjoy.
It’s only been a few months since the LFFF’s initial email to me, but judging from the film festival’s program, the organizers efforts have really paid off. It’s not every day I get to see I’m impressed with an organization’s outreach efforts (and results). So, I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight A Few Awesome Things the London Feminist Film Festival Did to Support Media Diversity.
Check out these powerful films — Taxi Sister, KungFu Grandma, The Witches of Gambaga, and Ladies’ Turn — exploring the lives of African women through narrative documentary. They’re showing at the London Feminist Film Festival, which was set up as a response to the under-representation of women in the film industry. The festival showcases films from women directors from all over the world, including Africa.
Check out my review of Beautiful Sentence, a short documentary about women in prison as they experience the liberating effect of creative writing, in which I reflect on gender segregation in prison systems and its impact on transgender women. Beautiful Sentence screens at the first annual London Feminist Film Festival being held at the Hackney Picturehouse from Thursday November 29th – Sunday December 2nd, 2012.
I don’t doubt for one second that criticism of Hollywood plays an important role in keeping Hollywood accountable. But black women owe it to each other to more frequently use our voices to highlight our resistance, our power, ways in which artists of color have been resourceful, increasing support and visibility for the projects that will get us closer to the future we wish to see, because it is possible.
The very first London Feminist Film Festival, held between Nov 29 – Dec 2, 2012 at the Hackney Picturehouse, is seeking submissions from African feminists. The organizers are actively working to solicit submissions from filmmakers with diverse backgrounds, including the LGBTI Diaspora. I may actually submit something, given how visually creative I’ve been feeling lately. Spectra, the aspiring filmmaker… I can see an Oscar already.
In case you missed it, Hollywood is gearing up to release a biopic of Nina Simone, an African-American singer, pianist, and civil rights activists whose music was highlight influential in the fight for equal rights for blacks int he US. Zoe Saldana, a light-skinned Dominican actress has been cast to play the role (replacing Mary J. Blige), causing controversy about depictions of Black women in Hollywood. But this debate is completely missing the point.
Framed by the United Nations global initiative to provide equal access to education for girls by 2015, the documentary film, To Educate a Girl, takes a ground-up and visually stunning view of that effort through the eyes of girls in Nepal and Uganda, two countries emerging from conflict and struggling with poverty. Catch a screening with UNICEF and the Filmmakers on March 8th in New York, or watch the full feature for free online!
Africa has had much of its history depicted through mainly male characters; the on-going plight of women and children during times of war has often been reduced to b-roll (i.e. supplemental or alternate footage intercut with the main shot) and action scenes portraying sexual violence for shock value. Hence, the film adaptation of Half of a Yellow Sun, an intricate and emotionally honest story told through the lives of two very different Nigerian sisters, could mean a huge leap for the preservation of Nigerian women’s history, as well as the portrayal of African women in film.
About Me
Meet Spectra: Queer Nigerian Afrofeminist Writer and Media Activist. Social Entrepreneur Nurturing Principled Diaspora and Women's Philanthropy in Media and Tech. Self-Care and Self-Love Evangelist. Idealist Warrior Woman. Big Dreamer. Big Thinker. Big Doer, Too.
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Racism and LGBT Rights: Where are the African Films in the South African LGBT Film Festival?
South Africa’s 19th Out in Africa LGBT Film Festival opens this weekend and there is certainly no shortage of films about women, quite an achievement to note given how often the LGBT community is depicted as male. Yet, within the context of Africa, the LGBT community is also frequently perceived (and depicted) as white and western. So, my question is: where are all the black South African films in this “African” LGBT festival?