program description

Afro Queer Voices focuses on Black Queer visibility of African LGBTQIA+ filmmakers or their protagonists reclaiming their narratives.

This program presents engaging images of African queerness and gender fluidity highlighting the oppression experienced by LGBTQIA+ individuals on the African continent and beyond. With this program, we invite audiences to immerse themselves in the complexities of Black Queer love and explore the controversies around homosexuality and Queerness in different African communities. The films navigate between Queer rights, politics, and culture, as well as internal suffering, abandonment, and the struggle for acceptance.

With Afro Queer Voices, we learn that the forms of resistance invented by Queer communities, especially those experiencing compounded oppression, vary. As we witness the pain of loss due to family abandonment, hate crime, violence, and psychological abuse, young African Queers escape without a known destination and slim chances of survival. Resistance becomes an underground life of alternative families and kin as support networks aiming to provide shelter, comfort, and safety to those expelled from their original homes.

The program aspires to navigate issues of social injustice and politics, underlining that the global Afro Queer community is not only an integral part of Queer cultures that require historical acknowledgment, but also a significant cornerstone of global feminist social movements.

about the curator

Ronnie Vitalia, a Sudanese Black feminist, lesbian rights activist, and content writer, currently collaborates as a fellow on Cinelogue's Afro Queer Voices film program. Passionate about advancing African LGBTQIA+ and women's rights, Ronnie combines her love for the arts with advocacy for social justice and equality for marginalized communities. With a focus on fostering dialogue and diverse representation through cultural production, she addresses the nuances of African Queer identities in her writing. With Afro Queer Voices, Ronnie commits to curating a collection of Afro-Queer films that bring the unique stories of Black LGBTQIA+ filmmakers from various backgrounds to the forefront.