I'm gonna just leave that there.
So The Nest (an amazing Nairobi based arts collective that always seems to be doing the most awesome projects) made a film called Stories of Our Lives about the lives of LGBT folk in Kenya. They were initially going to release it anonymously but decided not to because it's 2014, and it's about time people got their heads out of their asses.
Still with me? Great. Let's keep moving.
So they premiered it at the Toronto Film Festival this year & thought, "Hey, you know what would be great? If we could show this movie to the public back home because it's about Kenyans, for Kenyans, by Kenyans." and that's what they did...or tried to do. *Insert rocket malfunctioning noises*
Basically, the Kenya Film Classification Board (You remember when they tried to ban Wolf of Wall Street and no one, and I mean ABSOLUTELY NOBODY gave a shit...yeah, those guys) restricted them from doing that under the premise that it "Promotes homosexuality" & "Contravenes the morals and values of Kenyans" or something like that. So that was that, they're trying to appeal it and we're waiting to see how that goes.
But ah, dear reader, the story progresses. Yesterday, they arrested George Gachara, executive producer of the film, for failure to obtain a licence prior to shooting (You can see The Nest's statement about this here). They released him on bail but he has a hearing coming up on the 18th, which is tomorrow.
So a lot's going on at that quaint house of creativity on Jabavu road right now. And a stack of questions are buzzing through our heads.
Did they break the law?
Well, yes. They did. It's in the Film & Stage Plays Act Cap.222. Shooting a film for public exhibition without a licence is punishable by a fine not more than Ksh. 100,000 , a sentence not longer than 5 years or both.
So why didn't they just apply for the licence?
Because they probably wouldn't have gotten it either way. Part of the application process involves giving the licensing officer a copy of the script and a synopsis of the film. So they'd have just red stamped it "DENIED" & moved on to licensing the next Aromat commercial.
But they did the right thing, right?
Abso-fucking-lutely.
See, I feel like the whole 'morality' thing is just a ploy for people to distract themselves from their personal issues and feel better about their crappy lives e.g: "Even though my father abandoned us for his mistress and I'm an alcoholic with commitment issues, at least I'm not homosexual." *smiles & goes on with shitty life*
And politicians use it because they think that we wouldn't notice the fact that they're stealing money from us, grabbing land in Karen & basically doing shit-all if we focused on something else...the homosexuals.
(Because the homosexuals totally made them do it)
I'm gonna throw another "Ugh" in there for old times sake. Ugh.
I just don't understand why people have their rectums in a knot about it. I just don't.
Gay people are real. And they're everywhere. They could be standing right behind you in the bank, sitting beside you when you eat dinner...or reading this right now.
Fucking get over it.
NOBODY is trying to fornicate in your face. NOBODY wants to have sex with you (If you're gross to people of the opposite sex, you're probably just as disgusting to people of the same sex. Face it, you're still ugly.)
If someone being the true versions of themselves makes you that uncomfortable then you should probably deal with those deep rooted insecurities first before deciding your next course of action.
Homosexuality isn't a foreign concept. The church is a foreign concept. Skinny jeans are a foreign concept. Rick Ross is a foreign concept. Christmas is a foreign concept. Homosexuality is just as old as heterosexuality.
The fact that I even had to blog about this just goes to show how much ignorance we still have left to eradicate in this country. Can we make that happen, please? Vision 2020 and all that jazz. I'm ready to start making posters.
So you want to talk about morality? Homosexuality isn't immoral. How can loving another human being ever be immoral? Because they're the same gender? Is that it? Jesus Christ.
Bigotry, hatefulness, discrimination. Now that's immoral. Hating someone so much because they're not like you.
The sooner everyone realizes this, the sooner we can get to channeling our hate to people that really deserve it, like ISIS or corrupt politicians.
The Nest made a beautiful film that would have sent our film industry to the heavens but because of idiocy like this, I can't watch it. That makes me sad.
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