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"The Abominable Crime," an award-winning documentary on homophobia in Jamaica, screens at the Leeds Queer Film Festival on Friday, July 11.
Jamaica has the reputation of being one of the most violently anti-gay countries in the world. Jamaica's ainti-buggery law, which refers to homosexuality as "an abominable crime", is a legacy of the British colonial past. The Pulitzer Center-supported documentary follows the lives of individuals from Jamaica's gay community who are under the constant threat of harassment and violence. Director Micah Fink spent more than four years shooting the film in five countries: Jamaica, Canada, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States. It tells the story of a single mother, Simone Edwards, who survives an anti-gay shooting and is forced to flee the country to protect herself and her daughter, and Maurice Tomlinson, a leading activist and lawyer whose marriage to another man is made public, placing him in danger as well.
This film is an outcome of Fink's original project supported by the Pulitzer Center: "Glass Closet: Sex, Stigma and HIV/AIDS in Jamaica." View the film's trailer.
After the screening, Godwyns Onwuchekwa and Apata Ronnie oin the discussion with audience. Onwuchekwa is the founder of Justice for Gay Africans, an advocacy group for positive engagement on LGBT matters within Black communities. Ronnie is a human rights activist from Nigeria who currently lives in Britain and fights for equality and freedom for members of the LGBT community, women and children over the world against injustices and persecution.
Friday, July 11
6:30pm
Wharf Chambers Cooperative Club
23-25 Wharf Street
Leeds LS2 7EQ
United Kingdom
For more information, please visit the website of the Leeds Queer Film Festival.