FILM REVIEW: CALL ME KUCHU

A scene from Call Me Kuchu.

The ugly and the undeterred in Uganda

By Don Simpson

Like the Nazi propaganda machine, the Christian fundamentalists of Uganda (and some American Evangelicals) worked hand in hand with the popular Ugandan newspaper (that functions more like a gossip tabloid), Rolling Stone, to effectively communicate to the Ugandan population that the LGBTI community was a bunch of disease-carrying rapists who were actively recruiting others to undermine Christianity and destroy the country's moral fibre.

The Ugandan LGBTI community -- otherwise known as kuchus -- was left three options: go back into the closet, emigrate to a more queer-friendly environment, or stand up for their personal freedoms.

Like good documentarians, directors Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall had the premonition to document a group of Ugandan LGBTI activists who took a stand against their government. Wright and Zouhali-Worrall conducted a series of interviews with both sides of the issue; without injecting their own opinions and judgments, they admirably allowed everyone to freely speak her or his mind.

Outed by Rolling Stone and under constant threat of being turned in by their own family or neighbors, these activists had to walk the fine line of staying safe while inciting change. In most cases, it is the influx of vigilant human rights activists from around the world and the presence of video cameras that serves as the most effective protections for the LGBTI community. Call Me Kuchuserves one of the rare examples of cameras having a (mostly) positive influence on the subjects they seek to capture.

The documentary also captures the loss of one of its primary subjects.

An emotional tsunami, Call Me Kuchu is about sticking together and not conforming to popular opinion despite the ever-present dangers of not abiding by the government's tyrannical rules, looking forward into the future and making sacrifices for the greater good. While it is impressive to see so most of the Western world stand up to Uganda on this issue, sometimes it can be easier to criticize the follies of others than to point out one's own faults.

It is not that I am complaining that the United States took such a firm stand against Uganda's gay death penalty bill, but it does seem a bit hypocritical, since in most U.S. states the LGBTI community is still not permitted the same rights as everyone else; and, in many areas of the U.S., the LGBTI community is still the recipient of hatred and violence.

So, while watching a documentary about the hardships of the kuchus may seem a bit foreign, it is actually a very relatable topic for Americans to contemplate.

AWARENESS 2011: INVISIBLE CHILDREN TONY

Tony in Invisible Children: Tony.

Invisible Children of the revolution

By John Esther 

Dedicated to "bringing awareness and opening eyes to some of our world's pressing issues; Ecological, Political, Health/Well Being and Scientific Progress" the Awareness Festival is now in its third year. 

A four day event concluding today, yesterday the Los Angeles festival screened the DVD, Invisible Children: Tony, on the big screen. 

In 2003 Americans Bobby Bailey, Larry Poole and Jason Russell, along with a camera, wound up Uganda in search of something more important in life. These 19-year-old men found it when they befriended young Ugandans like Tony, another boy victimized by Joseph Kony's Lords of Resistance Army (LRA).  

A particularly ungodly organization, the LRA has been accused of mass murder, child abduction and rape in Uganda and beyond. In order not to be forcefully recruited as child soldiers, who must kill fellow Ugandans or be killed, hundreds of children like Tony would leave their village homes and migrate to the city in order to sleep safely.

Responding to their newfound awareness, the three Americans returned to California to form Invisible Children, a group bringing awareness to the plight of Ugandans terrorized by mass murder. With a coalition consisting mostly of Ugandans plus American Invisible Children Roadies, the organization grows to such a degree it influences U.S. legislation. Then cold-blooded murder strikes Ugandans and and an American during the 2010 World Cup. 

(Beyond the horrors of the terrorist attack, politically speaking, it was tremendously stupid on the part of the LRA to make such an attack while the games were held in the country of South Africa. Westerners were actually paying attention to the African continent. An international public affairs fiasco, the attack brought negative-worldwide attention to the LRA -- who are not affiliated with al-Qaeda, despite initial ignorant coverage of the attack.)

Rather than give up, American youth was vitalized by the event. More signed up and more became dedicated to helping Ugandans live safely. There is now a movement to get quick communication devices (radio, cell phones) to remote areas so citizens can warn other citizens when the LRA is near. 

Co-directed by Poole and Russell, Invisible Children is more than just an engaging documentary that inspires action, it provides a wonderful example of what resides in some of America's best youth.

LAAPFF 2011: WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME?

A scene from Where are You Taking Me.

Art of hearts

By John Esther

Mixing styles reminiscent of Michelangelo Antonioni, Robert Bresson and Chris Marker, Kimi Takesue’s documentary about life in Uganda ripples with poetic complexity as it simply puts the camera on its subjects and lets the images express a harmonious connection between filmmaker, subject, and viewer.

Saying much with little dialogue, Takesue introduces us to such ordinary places as a hair salon, a martial arts dojo, a rock quarry bustling with child labor, a youth center where kids learn to bust a move, and the Entebbe Zoo where there were curious kids in attendance. Subjects often mundane in the hands of a lesser filmmaker or lesser surroundings, Takesue captures the beautiful and bold style of Ugandans -- what with the typical bold pinks, lavenders and whites of their clothes which shine under their genuinely warm smiles.

Not to be content with the usual, Takesue also shows the viewer other particular events like an Africa woman’s power lifting contest, a lavish Ugandan wedding (the groom and bride’s conflicting expressions are priceless), a VJ translating a “Bruce Lee” film to the local Lugandan language and local Ugandan independent filmmakers on set.

There is also more serious note when the documentary arrives at Hope North, a school providing school and home for children displaced by the civil war in North Uganda. Some of these children were abducted and coerced into the army, forced to kill if they did not kill. The school helps them recover from the traumas such situations summon.

Running a brief 72 minutes, Where Are You Taking Me? -- a question asked by some of the subjects but also a questions a viewer essentially asks before seeing a documentary -- is, for the most part, a real pleasure to watch. However, this documentary, which screened last June at the Los Angeles Film Festival, does get a bit mawkish at the end. 

Where Are You Taking Me screens today, noon, DGA. For more information: Take Uganda.