This December, several film fans from around the world are expected to gather in Kampala, Uganda for the inaugural Queer Kampala International Film Festival (QKIFF).
Ruby Pratka, an editor for Erasing 76 Crimes and 76 Crimes en français, has reported the story for Vice News.
QKIFF celebrates the diversity of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender lifestyle through quality cinema.
This inaugural year, the festival will span 3 days in December (9-11th) drawing crowds from across the region with film premieres, artist talks, panel discussions and parties that focus squarely on queer-themed films and videos from Uganda and around the world.
There will be no red carpet, no palm trees, and no billboards, just a series of text messages directing the guests to a series of otherwise undisclosed locations.
This comes into play following Uganda’s intolerance of gay behavior.
With the intention of preaching the very gosple that Uganda’s government and Church are fighting, part of QKIFF’s mission is to increase awareness and tolerance of sexual identity issues through increased public exposure using films.
Kamoga Hassan, a self-employed videographer who shot weddings and corporate events before turning to feature films is the lead organizer of the festival and one of the committed core of LGBTQ activists.
VICE News met with Kamoga at the World Social Forum in Montreal earlier this year to discuss Uganda’s gay community and his own belief in the power of film to fight injustice.
“People have different ways of fighting. Some people go on the streets and demonstrate. Some people go to court. But film is my tool, to fight for people’s rights and to educate people about what’s going on in my country.” He says.
Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 was signed into law by the President on 24 February 2014 however, the Constitutional Court ruled the Act invalid on procedural grounds later on.
Just last week, Matia Kasaija, the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development revealed that the Bridge International academies were closed because government suspected they were teaching pornography and the content related to lesbianism and homosexuality.
According to the Daily Monitor, the Minister was speaking at the 22nd graduation ceremony of Uganda Martyrs’ University (UMU) at their main campus in Nkozi, Mpigi District on Thursday.
“We could not allow teaching sexual matters in public. Why teaching pornography in Bridge schools? This moral decay couldn’t be tolerated…Stop conveying the gospel of homosexuality to our children. You should stop and stop.” he said.
editor@ugchristiannews.com
