Hopes and Fears, 100% (Being) Human: Deconstructing Gender with Zoe
Hopes and Fears, 100% (Being) Human: Deconstructing Gender with Zoe
The theme Hopes and Fears given to the Arts and Humanity Festival, Being Human got my attention as my latest film and research project Deconstructing Zoe is very much about the hopes and fears of Gender Queer people in the 21st Century. So it was great news when I heard that our project Deconstructing Gender with ICE (Institute of Creative Enterprise https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/ice/public-event-18th-november-2016/)
and Liverpool Pride (http://liverpoolpride.co.uk/) was selected to be part of the festival. In the last two years there has been much more awareness about transgender identity and the debate around gender and sexual identity has really opened up, so we would be forgiven for believing that there is more acceptance around LGBT rights. However, the sentiment of the Being Human theme of Hopes and Fears was brought into sharp relief during my recent experience at a screening of my film in Jakarta. That experience showed that discrimination against people with non-conforming gender and sexual identity is still building and being criminalised for that identity is only one vote away.
In September my film was selected to be part of the Q! Film Festival in Jakarta (http://www.qmunity-id.org/brief-history.html) and I was all set to be at the screening and Q&A, but then the festival organisers emailed to say that they had to cancel the festival because of security threats; instead they would do ‘underground’ screenings and asked if I still wanted to go? What exactly where these ‘security threats’ to the film festival I wondered? Across Indonesia anti-LGBT groups had threatened LGBT events with violence. Strong anti-LGBT sentiment had been brewing in Indonesia since January 2016, precipitated by a comment made by the Minister of Higher Education Muhammad Nasir, when he wanted to stop LGBT students organising on university campuses. Several politicians jumped on the bandwagon declaring that, “The LGBT community is a serious threat to the nation” and “It should not be allowed to grow or be given room to conduct its activities” (Nasir Djamil, Prosperous Justice Party politician 24.01.16). Then on 23rd of August 2016, just before the Q! Film Festival, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court held it’s fifth hearing to criminalize sex out of wedlock and consensual same-sex behaviour. The proposed amendment to Indonesian laws has been criticised by Human Rights Watch: Graeme Reid the LGBT rights director there says, “The proposed criminal sanctions before the Constitutional Court are not only a threat to LGBT people, but to all Indonesians….Laws that threaten privacy inevitably affect everyone.”
Of course I was fearful of the situation in Jakarta, as I knew festival organizers had received death threats in the past, but hope means the will to overcome. If the festival organizers were brave enough to stand by their rights in the face of opposition I thought it would be rude not to join them.
The festival was indeed low-key, but the energy and commitment demonstrated by the film festival organizers was inspiring. One of the organizers told me that they saw the motion to criminalize LGBT community as a ‘set-back’ and they would continue to fight and bring back the Q! Film Festival in future years.
They said this about the screening of my film,
“To be able to hold this kind of festival is already a challenge remembering what happened to LGBTIQ issue since early this year in Indonesia especially with the trial to criminalize LGBTIQ in Supreme Court. Having a program that can educate people to understand about LGBTIQ is another challenge. Having [your film] in our festival can bring a very good perspective about how to really know about transgender especially Asian [transgender] which is the same with us here. Zoe present her thought about a woman life which felt very real despite that she is a transgender and about how the world accept her as who she is. This is something that we want to share to others that being LGBTIQ is no different with being "normal" as we are the same 100% human.”
Whilst my film Deconstructing Zoe presents a positive message about transgender identity, we must remember that people with a non-conforming gender identity all over the world still face violence and discrimination and the special screening of Deconstructing Zoe at FACT Picture House (http://www.fact.co.uk/whats-on/current/deconstructing-zoe.aspx)
on Transgender Day of Remembrance (https://tdor.info/about-2/)
reminds us of this.
The event, Deconstructing Gender on the 18th of November at the Being Human Festival brings with it the real Hopes and Fears of the LGBTQ community for the right to privacy, self-determination and the right to be 100% Human.
1 https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/08/23/indonesia-court-reviews-anti-lgbt-law
