Witness and Celebration: Massimadi’s opening night!
More: Arc en ciel d'Afrique, Black HIstory Month, Festival de films Massimadi, Homophobia in Africa, Laurent Maurice Lafontant, Massimadi, Mois de l'histoire des noirs, Queer People of Colour, Steve François
With the Salle Fernand Séguin at the Cinémathèque québécoise full of supporters and cinephiles, the tight-knit LGBT group Arc-en-ciel d’Afrique launched their much-anticipated film festival, Massimadi, last night. Laurent Maurice-Lafontant’s Être Soi-même saw its première, with live music by singer Senaya, and an elegiac reception from the group’s many fans, including Être and 2Bmag!
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Motivated by a desire to help LGBT people of African and Caribbean heritage live their sexual orientation more proudly in the black community and in society at large, the members of Arc-en-ciel d’Afrique (AECA) turned up the volume for this year’s 4th edition of the Massimadi Festival. The group’s director, Alexis Musanganya, started by thanking 2Bmag for our support in publicizing the event, which has gotten more coverage this year than ever before. “Is this the first year of the festival?” several people asked during the opening cocktail: No, but it’s definitely their biggest year yet!
Part of the reason is the première of Montréal-made documentary short Être soi-même by AECA’s Laurent Maurice Lafontant, made with a grant of only $2,000. The soft-spoken young man explained that he wanted to make a film that unmasks the coming-out stories of the group’s brave and dedicated members. The similarities between the stories of Québec-born black people, like poster-boy Steve François, and those who were born abroad, are highlighted in the powerful 15-minute film.
AECA member and interview subject Moustapha Njonkou-Kouandou was the real show-stealer, when he recounts his own internalized homophobia: sitting on a couch, petting his cat with one ear-ring dangling from his ear, he describes his discomfort for “flamboyant” and effeminate men, something he now embraces with beauty and humour. You can read Êtremag’s interview with Lafontant here (lien entrevue dans ETRE?). AECA members Steve François, Alexis Musanganya, and Carlos Ibidouo will be featured in 2Bmag‘s February issue fashion spread, in exciting photos by inkedKenny! (see banner)
Opening remarks were full of praise and gratitude from AECA’s bevy of supporters, from the CQGL’s Steve Foster, to the spokeswoman of the Mois de l’histoire des noirs, Dorothy Rhau. Rhau, a stand-up comedian by trade, made the audience erupt in laughter when she joked that “Ce que les gens font dans leur chambre à coucher ne m’importe pas… moi j’ai mes choses aussi!” (“What people do in their own bedroom doesn’t matter to me… I mean, I have my own stuff going on in there too!”).
The light-hearted note was off-set by remarks from Black History Month laureate Evans Guercy, who expressed regret that there were not more members of his community who came out for the opening. “J’ai de la misère à croire qu’en 2012 les gens ont autant de misère avec l’homosexualité,” (“I have a hard time believing that people could continue to have such hang-ups about homosexuality in our day and age”) Guercy said, looking around at the mostly white audience.
Guercy’s comment resonated throughout the two opening night films. Voices of Witness Africa, a 30-minute documentary from California-based Christian groupClaiming the Blessing, addresses in a series of moving interviews the hypocrisy of religious-based homophobia in Uganda, Nigeria and Rwanda, contrasted with recent progress made in South Africa, as well as within the Anglican and Episcopalian Church. The struggle to be oneself, so often under attack by religious dogma, does not prevent many LGBT black people from proudly asserting their Christian faith, a subject not often explored in Canadian and European cinema.
The Q&A following the projection was moderated by AECA member and out CEGEP teacher Steve Bastien, who made an impassioned speech about how happy he is when he sees his lesbian and gay students holding hands at school. There is hope for the new generation of black LGBTs, he and Laurent Maurice Lafontant agreed. Having role models like the members of Arc-en-ciel d’Afrique will go a long way in helping make sure of that. Être soi-mêmescreens again tonight, Tues Feb 7, 5:45pm, at UQÀM’s 201 Président-Kennedy building, SSalle PK-1630.
Massimadi Closing Cocktail Party (Sun. 12 Feb 9pm @ Piano Rouge, 22 Rue Saint Paul Est Montréal) $5-10 sliding scale
Following the production of FIT, closing film at the NFB, 1564 rue St-Denis, 7pm
