Tag Archives: South African

Lesbian South African Films for Your Next Movie Night

South Africa has a vibrant filmmaking scene, especially where LGBT movies are concerned. Grab a bowl of popcorn, snuggle up with your girlfriend and watch one (or all) of these amazing films.

Lost in the World (2015)

While being LGBT is legal in South Africa, the situation is much more complicated for women. Queer women face the threat of corrective rape – men believe that they can sexually assault a woman into being heterosexual. This issue is well-known but not always talked about.

Lost in the World pulls back the curtain on this issue. The film follows a police officer seeking revenge for the brutal rape and murder of her female partner.

Even though the story centers around rape, the rape is not depicted, and the narrative is non-linear, which is deliberately confusing.

The filmmaker, Xolelwa Nhlabatsi, gives the reason why: “I didn’t want people to be comfortable watching this movie. I want you to feel Whitney’s character, I want you to feel this loss and this “What the fuck is going on?” thing all the time.”

The film debuted at the New Queer Visions Film Festival. Stream it here.

The World Unseen (2008)

If you loved Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth in the international lesbian romantic comedy, I Can’t Think Straight, then you’ll enjoy The World Unseen.

Apartheid is just beginning in 1950s Cape Town, where South Asian women Amina and Miriam live. While Amina is a free spirit, Miriam is fiercely devoted to her family, to conservative values and to doing what is expected of her. After they fall in love, they decide to meet without raising suspicions by arranging driving lessons.

Despite the racist, sexist and homophobic society in which they live, Miriam and Amina realize that the only thing that makes life worth living is their love.

Check out the movie here.

While You Weren’t Looking (2015)

This multigenerational story of queer South Africans twists and turns around itself, bringing several seemingly disparate storylines into one graceful arc.

An elderly gay man searches for one of his lost lovers, who is now a political heavyweight. An interracial lesbian couple find their relationship tearing apart due partly to race and partly to infidelity. Their adopted daughter, who is also the student of the elderly man, falls in love with a “tommy boy.”

Although paraded around Cape Town as the epitome of diversity, their daughter feels more like an experiment.

The film, shot in Cape Town, also features music from local artists.

Rent it here.

The Proud ‘Rainbow Girls’ of South African

Proud Women of Africa is a collection of short visual stories that portrays the daily lives of remarkable women living or working in Africa. Part of this project is Rainbow Girls.

Photographed by Julia Gunther, Rainbow Girls documents the lesbian women of South Africa’s Gugulethu and Khayelitsha township. These powerful women are proud to be who they are despite the daily threats of violence, constant intimidation and the risk of being cast out by their own families.

Shot at the 2012 Miss Lesbian beauty competition in Khayelitsha Township, at the IAM Women’s Shelter and in private homes in Gugulethu Township.

08_lineup

04_zintle_inga

11_sino_nana 12_nozuko 13_vee 14_sino 15_inga 09_visitor 10_spmumeze

07_groupshotSouth Africa lesbians continue to fight for the right to be who they are. They face atrocities including rape, beatings and expulsion. All because these women are living proudly as lesbians in South Africa.

South African Activists Call Cape Town Pride ‘Racist’, Say It Should Become More Inclusive

The topic of racism in South Africa is not a new one. From 1948 until 1994, South Africa went through an awful period of racial segregation called apartheid. Although most people in South Africa were black or of other ethnic minorities, their rights were taken away from them and Afrikaner minority rule (Afrikaners are a white ethnic group) was enforced.

It’s unsurprising then, that there are ongoing complaints by South Africa’s LGBT community that the annual Cape Town Pride celebration is not just exclusionary but is inherently racist too.

While it’s unclear as to how Cape Town Pride has been racist, activists have raised issue with the fact that Cape Town Pride is mostly focused on white, gay men and fails to address the issues of queer women in townships, such as the fact that that they are often threatened with rape or have verbal abuse thrown at them.

A group of like minded activists who agree that Cape Town Pride needs to change have set up Alternative Inclusive Pride which takes place at the same time as Cape Town Pride. What’s key is that despite the timing of the AIP, the organisers aren’t calling for a boycott and instead hold seminars, parties and continue to ask for Cape Town Pride to involve the wider LGBT community in its planning.

Funeka Soldaat, a member of Alternative Inclusive Pride as well as being the chairperson of Free Gender, a lobbying group explains that “Protesting at the event was the last resort for us, we’ve been engaging with the organisers for a while, but they chose not to listen”.

However, despite the insistence that Cape Town Pride needs to change, Cape Town Pride director, Matthew van As has retaliated saying that actually, Alternative Inclusive Pride’s protest is racist.

“I don’t agree with the method they used. I find it slightly racist because Pride doesn’t see colour or gender, anyone is welcome to get involved and you can choose not to join in.

They were given until the 20 December to add any new events to our calendar, but we didn’t get anything. About two weeks before Pride, we were contacted to say there was unhappiness about the calendar. It was too late for us to change things a week before a festival.”

Matthew van As

van As also notes that his organisation has held Khumbulani Pride in Gugulethu where they have talked about homophobia in the townships.

It’s unlikely that the situation will be resolved soon but we’ll keep you posted once we know more.

All-star Treatment for New Die Antwoord ‘Ugly Boy’ Video ft. Cara Delevingne, Jack Black, Marilyn Manson, & Dita Von Teese

If there’s one act whose musical vision you don’t want to mess with, it’s Die Antwoord.

The ever-unapologetic South African rap duo has created their fair share of headlines since forming in 2008. Conflict with a major label over the release of second album ‘Ten$Ion’, homophobic slurs, a Twitter feud with a certain female pop megastar after the duo killed off a lookalike in video ‘Fatty Boom Boom’, accusations of copyright and the use of blackface in their film content are some of the controversies surrounding the group.

Compared with the ‘Insane Clown Posse’ and other satirical rap acts, Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er have heralded the rags to riches story with their representation of white trash ghetto rap in South Africa.

Their trademark sound is blending aggressive and chaotic hybrid of Afrikaans, Xhosa and English slang mixed with expletive-filled lyrics, early ’90s rave, rap beats, and provocative imagery of off-putting sexuality and shock thrills.

They now have released the video for their track ‘Ugly Boy’, from their recent ‘Donker Mag album’, and, you’re never going to believe this, but I really like it.

Its weirdness just gets better due to the fact it features cameos from a star-studded line-up of fellow weirdos, like Jack Black, Marilyn Manson, Flea, Dita Von Teese, The ATL twins, Cara Delevingne, and, I’m pretty sure, Aphex Twin.

Watch Ugly Boy