Kenya has made history by hosting the region’s first gay film festival.
The festival, titled the OUT film festival, showcased films, features and documentaries on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) issues in Africa.
Organisers said it presented an opportunity to depict the lives, stories of love and challenges that homosexuals face.
The festival took place at the Goethe Institute and was organised by ‘Gay Kenya’ in conjunction with the Swiss Embassy.
Founders of Gay Kenya say it was formed to help advance the visibility of the Gay community in Kenya, challenge the negative perceptions that exist and bring to light the abuses the community endures.
The Gay film festival organizers were not anticipating large numbers of people to attend the event, they said they had initially catered for an audience of 60 persons but ended up having to turn people away after more than 200 showed up.
Most of the audience in the room were young Kenyans, but approximately 10-15 per cent were foreigners. Many were apparently students, interested in the cultural side of the festival and local productions, although curiosity was also a great factor for the attendance of many.
Films featured from India, Kenya, Uganda, Germany and there was a special appearance by Lionel Baier, a renowned Swiss filmmaker, who showcased his film titled La Parade. This documentary-film is about a parade which demonstrated gay pride in a very catholic conservative society region of Switzerland.
He followed the parades organising committee over a period of seven months, the documentary was relevant to this specific festival as it showed that the struggles for LGBT are the same all over the world.
According to the 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project, 96 per cent of Kenyans said that homosexuality should be “rejected” by society, one of the highest rates of the 44 countries surveyed. In fact, under Kenyan law the penalty for ‘gay sex’ is five to 14 years’ imprisonment.
In an interview with Francesco Cattaneo, one of the festival organisers, they were “prepared to ask people to leave” if there were negative reactions to the event, however, there was “lots of positive feedback with people hoping that [they] would do it again”.
Organisers said in effect, the festival served to bring issues of homosexuality to the forefront of debate through a less confrontational medium – culture.
It also brought to light the fact that there are is a new generation of Kenyans who are coming out and talking about LGBT issues in the conservative country.
As Cattaneo said: “Films are the perfect was to make homosexuality visible in a sensitive way [because] often movements begin that way, with cultural activities”.
Mr Cattaneo said he was particularly impressed by the bravery of the Kenyan filmmakers who tackled prejudices and created productions, illustrating the fears that the community feels – one group did not even show their piece as they were concerned for their and their family’s safety.
Given the success of the OUT film festival the organisers have said that this will now be a yearly event.
Gay Kenya hosts a variety of columnists including ones by Rev Major Kimindu, a reverend who seeks to bring educational awareness on how religion should support human rights and sexual identity, and David Kuria, Kenya’s first openly gay candidate who will be running for the position of Senator for Kiambu County in 2012.
The organisation is also currently in the process of producing a documentary on ‘Being Gay’ in Kenya.
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