“Queer Coolie-tudes,” an award-winning documentary by Guyanese-Canadian filmmaker Dr Michelle Mohabeer, will screen for the first time in Guyana tonight when the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) continues to virtually host its annual film festival.
The documentary, which was released last year, will premiere at 6pm at the continuing “Painting the Spectrum 16 – Virtual Edition,” which began last Saturday and will conclude at the end of the month.
According to a statement issued by SASOD, Guyana’s annual LGBTQ+ film festival, now in its 16th year, is being hosted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It noted that “Painting the Spectrum” is the longest running film festival of its kind in the Caribbean as it creates the opportunity to showcase the lives, diversities and experiences of LGBTQ+ persons through the art of film and facilitate access to LGBTQ+ films which are not accessible through mainstream media in Guyana.
It explained that to host this year’s virtual edition of the festival, SASOD Guyana has partnered with Studio Anansi, which is an online platform created specifically to make Carib-bean films available worldwide.
“Queer Coolie-tudes,” the statement said, is a creative essay documentary and queer ethnography which traces the intergenerational lives, histories, identities, familial relations and sexualities of a diverse range of subjects (academics, artists, and activists) from the Indo-Caribbean diaspora in Canada. “Some are mixed race, including: dougla (Indian-African mixture), callaloo (creole mixtures)), genderqueer, persons with disabilities, engaged in AIDS activism, and performers of drag identity,” it further said, while adding that the film is the first documentary feature by a queer woman of colour on the topic.
Dr Mohabeer is described as a Guyana-born, Toronto-based, award-winning filmmaker/media artist and photographer. Her previous films include experimental documentaries “Blu In You” (2008), and “Coconut/Cane & Cut-lass” (1994), as well as the shorts “Echoes” (2003), “Tracing Soul” (2000), “TWO/DOH” (1996), “EXPOSURE” (1990), and the experimental narrative “Child-Play” (1996). These films, the statement said, have been exhibited worldwide at over 400 festivals, conferences and galleries, and collected by university libraries across the Western Hemisphere and Australia.
Like all of the festival’s screenings, there will be no charge to view the film. SASOD said screenings take place through the virtual hangout site Kosmi, followed by discussions. The Kosmi link for tonight’s screening is https://app.kosmi.io/room/ybaqsj
