I hereby pronounce you a (queer) community
Five short films find empathy, solidarity, and messiness in LGBTQIA2S+ spaces
The first time I explicitly went looking for queer community was in college. In my first year, I joined my campus’s queer rights group partially because I was passionate about advocacy, but also as a way to meet other people. Within several months, I had been elected to a leadership position on the group’s board; within another few months, I left it after being frustrated by constant drama within the group, in part because tensions in friendships, or around romance and sex between various folks on the board, got tangled with our political objectives.
This is both the challenge and beauty of queer communities. We seek each other out for a variety of reasons that don’t necessarily gel together, and we all come to queer spaces with other identities and positionalities that impact how we’ll be treated, depending on our race, sex, gender, disability, faith, and much more.
Intertwining all of those dynamics can cause divisions, like they did in my college group, but they can also cause amazing convergences that do the opposite. I’ve been very fortunate that, in the decade plus since my college years, I’ve found other queer communities that I wanted to stay a part of. My connections to other queer people are as much a part of my queer identity as my desires and my politics, and this week’s films explore how those connections can be empowering, harmful, and meaningful, sometimes all at the same time.
“To pass as neurotypical in a neurotypical world gives you advantages, and this is where I see a lot of queer parallels.”
Finding Queer Disability Culture finds docu-series hosts Jen Sungshine and David Ng interviewing Amar, a queer and gay Deaf person, and Vivian, an autistic nonbinary person. Amar and Vivian both talk about how in an ableist and cisheteronormative world, it can be difficult find spaces to show up as their full selves – except around other queer disabled folks who understand those multiple marginalizations. Shared language is also central to any community, and Amar and Vivian both discuss how signing, or interpreting body language through stimming, creates a unique form of connection for queer disabled folks, even while being forced to speak, pass as straight, or mask forces queer disabled folks to suppress themselves. Being in community with each other opens up that more welcoming space.
The film is part of a series produced by Love Intersections, which is, according to their website, “a media arts collective made up of queer artists of colour dedicated to using collaborative art making and relational storytelling to address systemic racism in our communities. We produce intersectional and intergenerational stories from underrepresented communities of colour – centering the invisible, the spiritual, the metaphysical and the imaginary.”
Finding Queer Disability Culture
6 minutes
Canada, 2019, audio in English and signing in ASL (American Sign Language)
English closed captioning embedded in the video
Check out other projects by Love Intersections
“The operation was a ‘success’.”
The Side Effects of Normal, written and directed by Mari Wrobi, follows Naomi (Alice Harrison), an intersex person struggling with the trauma of Intersex Genital Mutilation that they were forced into as a child because it was deemed “corrective” surgery. Even as an adult in a loving relationship with their partner Jules (Mariana Jimenez), Naomi continues to have horrible flashbacks and panic attacks out of nowhere. But after finding a community of other intersex people, Naomi begins to learn how to heal.
This film is short but clearly grounded in emotion; Naomi’s journey to connecting with other intersex people with shared experiences is lovely to see, even as the film acknowledges that the road to recovery is not linear or easy. Wrobi, a queer, nonbinary and intersex advocate themselves, clearly brings their own focus on education and organizing into the film.
The Side Effects of Normal
5 minutes
United States, 2020, audio in English
English closed captions available
Director Mari Wrobi can be found on Instagram
“But finally I met some [other trans men], and now we are like a family.”
The Rogers, directed by Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson, introduces us to the eponymous Rogers, a troupe of fa’atama (trans men) who perform in Samoa. We hear specifically from three of the Rogers – Seta Tiatia, Vanila “Ice” Heather, and Tail Talaeai – who share their stories about coming out to family, wrestling with their faith, finding love, and finding each other. Despite past struggles that have included homelessness, suicidal ideation, and ostracization for some of them, the Rogers are able to build community together and come into their own.
The Rogers is also showcases the solidarity between trans men and trans women – their troupe is named after To’oto’oali’ti “Mama Roger” Stanley, the former president of the Samoa Fa'afafine (Trans Women) Association, who encouraged Ice to create a group for trans men to perform as Fa’atama at the annual Samoa Fa’afafine Pageant. The film is dedicated to Mama Roger’s memory.
The Rogers
16 minutes
Samoa, 2020, audio in English and Samoan
English subtitles embedded for the dialogue in Samoan, but not for the dialogue in English
The Rogers/Fa’atama Samoa can be found on Facebook
“Despite the ways that our communal self-hatred was aimed at each other, I kept returning.”
Reviving the Roost, written and directed by Vivek Shraya, is a complicated ode to the Roost, Edmonton’s most popular gay bar until it closed in 2007. Shraya’s expectations as a young queer of finding connection and affirmation at the Roost were dashed when she realized that the divisions within the queer community still led to transphobia, misogyny, and racism making a home in the bar. And yet, the sometimes cruel, imperfect community Shraya found there was still a community, one worth commemorating in all its messiness.
Warning for bright flashing lights throughout the film.
Reviving the Roost
6 minutes
Canada, 2019, audio in English
English closed-captions available
Check out more of Vivek Shraya’s work
“Have you thought about what I told you? About me, maybe, liking women?”
In Sunday’s Child, written by Maisie Richardson-Sellers and Charlotte Casey and directed by Richardson-Sellers, we meet Esi (Chauntice Green), an aspiring photographer who has newly moved to Los Angeles. On an otherwise frustrating and demoralizing workday, Esi gets randomly invited to a party by her coworker Joy (Numa Perrier). She waves off the invite initially, but after a harrowing conversation with her mom about her sexuality, Esi decides to go. Despite not knowing most of the guests, meeting, sharing food, and celebrating with other queer and trans people of color makes Esi feel welcomed and seen.
“As a queer woman of color I so rarely see myself positively and truthfully represented on screen,” Richardson-Sellers tweeted about the film. “Sunday’s Child examines universal themes in a deeply intimate setting, exploring the powers of community, dynamics between immigrant parents and first generational children and the journey to self-acceptance. It celebrates LGBTQAI+ identities and all of the beauty and strength that exists in our differences. For those who have not yet found acceptance or a community, this story is a message of hope.”
Sunday’s Child
13 minutes
United States, 2020, audio in English
No closed captioning available
Director Maisie Richardson-Sellers can be found on Instagram
STOP READING NOW TO AVOID CONTENT NOTES
Finding Queer Disability Culture: none
The Side Effects of Normal: perisexism, intersex genital mutilation, surgical trauma, sexual harassment
The Rogers: transphobia, suicidal ideation
Reviving the Roost: transphobia, racism, mentions of alcohol use
Sunday’s Child: homophobia from a parent, cannabis use (joint), alcohol