Directed by: Katherine Fairfax Wright & Malika Zouhali-Worrall.
The
documentary Call Me Kuchu tells an important and tragic story – and one that
remains unresolved in the film, because the piece of legislation in front of
the Uganda parliament is still pending. That legislation would impose penalties
– right up to and including the death penalty – for homosexuals in Uganda – and
imprisonment for people who know homosexuals, but do not report them within 24
hours. The level of hatred and bigotry we see spewed throughout the film is
truly eye opening and depressing.
The
film spends much of its running time focusing on David Kato – Uganda’s “first
openly gay man”, and a leading activist for gay rights in his country. He lived
for a few years in South Africa – one of the few African countries with a more
open mind about homosexuality – before returning to Uganda. Kato was bludgeoned
to death during the production of this movie back in 2011. The movie does not
mention the outcome of the murder – that a male prostitute was convicted of
killing Kato and sentenced to 30 years in jail – something some believe is part
of a smear campaign against Kato – but still something the movie should have
brought up. As it stands, the movie makes it seem like no one was ever charged
with Kato’s murder. . Two other leading figures in the gay rights movement in
Uganda also get major screen time – Naome (if they ever gave a last name, I
missed it)– a friend of David’s, and a leading lesbian activist, and Bishop
Christopher Senyonjo, who was expelled from the Church for preaching tolerance
of gays – and yet continues right on doing what he thinks is right. He quotes
openly from the bible to support his belief that contrary to what many in
Uganda think, God does not hate gay people. “We are all one in Christ”, he
quotes Paul.
The
movie also doesn’t shy away from showing the people on the other side –
including Giles Muhame, the editor of a tabloid called Rolling Stone (that has
nothing to do with the American magazine), that publishes pictures of alleged
homosexuals, and encourages them to be hanged. When talking about Kato’s death,
Muhame accepts no responsibility – he says he never encouraged violence against
homosexuals. What he wanted was for people like Kato to be arrested, given a
fair trial, and then hanged. He is a hateful person, spewing the worst kind of
anti-gay rhetoric imaginable – and feels no shame at all. He’s not even humbled
when he loses a court case against the people he put in his newspaper just
weeks before Kato’s death.
The
film tells an important story – and does serve to help give viewers more
background information on Uganda and their treatment of homosexuals than they
got by watching the media reports of the anti-gay bill by American news
outlets. The stories the people in this movie tell – of being raped, harassed,
beaten and all sort of other monstrous things truly is hard to take, but is
necessary to show the living hell gays and lesbians live through in Uganda.
Still,
I think Call Me Kuchu misses an opportunity to be a better, deeper film. The
primary purpose of the film seems to be to raise awareness – and that in itself
is a laudable goal. And yet, the film is content to take the easiest path
possible in telling its story. It is important subject matter – but one that I
wish was handled with a little bit more nuance and intelligence.
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