In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with filmmaker Tim McCarthy about his new Ugandan film project “Voices of the Abasiyazzi - Creating Allies” that he is producing with Pepe Julian Onziema. Abasiyazzi is the Ugandan equivalent of the American word Queer. This documentary will explore the cultural and legal history of homosexuality in Uganda up to the present “Kill the Gays Bill” pending in the Ugandan Parliament. As you know over the past four years Fundamentalist Christian Leaders from America have been transporting homophobia to Africa. The concept is to film LGBT Ugandans sharing their lives with their own clans people, in their own language and cultural traditions. They’ll be spending five weeks starting in May of 2013 traveling around the 5 regions of Uganda sampling positive views of Ugandan Abasiyazzis through their lives and talking with the local straight allies and traditional healers about their views.
When asked if there was a question he wished people would ask him about the project McCarthy stated, “I think people want to know why they should support our Kickstarter project, why they should be worried about Uganda with all the gay issues that exist in this country. The fact of the matter is that’s a false argument. The truth is we need to fight homophobia in every place that it exists. To be very blunt about it the Ugandan situation exists because of Americans. So it’s our obligation to provide them with the tools to solve this themselves, not to go in there and solve it. That’s the big difference with our film. The other aspect of our film is we’re not going in there with an angry position about how you’re trying to kill us. That’s not what is going to create allies in Uganda. What is going to create allies is simply to show them the humanity of their lesbian sisters, gay brothers and their trans partners in their own communities and talking to them in their own language not in English; talking with them with their own traditional healers and traditions that existed before Christianity came to Africa.”
Tim McCarthy is a Gay Video Historian who has traveled the world since April 1990 in search of LGBT Culture in 90 countries so far and all 7 continents. Some of Tim's archival footage appears in the 2012 Oscar Nominated documentary "How To Survive A Plague". He is also an award winning filmmaker. Pepe Julian Onziema is a Ugandan transman presently Program Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and the recipient of the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative Award who shot the video of the first Ugandan/East African Gay Pride event where people were arrested. The funds raised will go toward producing the film and security.
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There are so many issues concerning Fundamental rights and HIV/AIDS that have entangled the LGBT community in Uganda, there is need to advance LGBT rights, create awareness on HIV/AIDS prevention among the LGBT community.
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