When I received the project of select this edition documentaries, my goal was to make it themed diverse, including different styles and periods but at the same time with a common core subject, this year, "The Dissidence".

I talk about dissidence because is a position that every day more gays stand for, because we are against the prevailing gay model and because we challenge to the "gay orthodoxy" its project of social liberation. The documentaries of this exhibition don’t talk about the gay dissidence but in all of them there are some elements of dissidence, basically non-orthodox points of view.

In She’s a Boy I Knew, Gwen Haworth makes a humble role getting inside her family’s skin trying to understand how they have experienced her transformation into a woman. Not imposing her truth but making them understands it. In Au-delà de la haine, the Chenude family tries to overcome the hatred behaviour to be expected from them when facing their son’s murder, and they try to understand the assassins. The Times of Harvey Milk shows us a strong society beyond the gay community, a city that faces a tragic event and gets united breaking all social barriers.

In Derek, we see Derek Jarman, the iconoclast creator, interested in all the social fights on his times. On A jihad for love we see how people fight for homosexual liberation within the Islamic world and not by creating a copy of the gay lifestyle of the western world. Finally, the main characters of Dos patrias: Cuba y la noche, submerge us in rich realities of artistic and social sensitivity; realities than in our free and opulent societies seems to be abandoned.

I hope you enjoy these great documentaries that will give us new clues to understand the gay world from another point of view.

The Times of Harvey Milk

(U.S.A. 1984)
Directed: Robert Epstein y Richard Schmiechen
Duration: 88'

Winner of the Oscar in 1985, "The Times of Harvey Milk" tells the dramatic story of the first openly gay person elected for a Public Office in the United States. The directors, with a brilliant narrative, explain in this documentary the story from the successful political campaign of Harvey Milk to his assassination by another San Francisco City Council member. That was a sad event that united the whole city in the search for justice and changed forever the dynamics between the gay community and mainstream San Franciscans.

It’s a story of values and conflicts full of a passion that shown in every image. This documentary builds its climax with the intensity and unavoidability of a Greek tragedy. And at the end, when everything gets calm, is a strong message of courage and hope.

Derek

(U.K., 2008)
Director: Isaac Julien
Screenplay and Cast: Tilda Swinton
Duration: 76'

The actress Tilda Swinton wrote in 2002 "Letter to an Angel", a letter to Derek Jarman, in wich she thanks him for being her mentor in her first years as an actress. Derek had died eight years before from AIDS.

The reading of this letter began this documentary about Derek Jarman’s life. A painter, writer, gay activist, and foremost a filmmaker that was the driving force of the independent film industry for more than two decades. Iconoclast and revolutionary, he shared experiences with David Hockney, Patrick Procter and worked among many others with "The Smiths".

Issac Julian, the director and disciple of Derek Jarman, a renowned visual artist, takes us into a journey that covers not only the life of Derek Jarman but also the last 3 decades of the XX century of the U.K. Society.

Dos Patrias. Cuba y la Noche

(Germany, 2006)
Director: Christian Liffers
Duration: 82'

Chirstian Lifers travels with his film-crew to Cuba. In his luggage he carries poems and notes from the Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, notes that speak about love, sexual freedom and his proud stand against discrimination. Can this attitude be found in today’s Cuba? It is possible that topics and stereotypes make us think of a Cuba that doesn’t exist anymore?

Reinaldo Arenas’ prose and poems are the keys to explain the lives, sufferings, hopes, and joys of six men from different ages and social backgrounds. They share their homosexuality and have to face discrimination, the macho attitude of the Cuban society and its government.

A Jihad for Love

(Canada 2007)
Director: Parvez Sharma
Duration: 81'

14 centuries after the revelation from Ala to Muhammad of the "The Holly Quran", the Islam is today the second largest faith in the world. Parvez Sharma, a gay and Muslim filmmaker, shows us the inside world of this faith and introduces us some gay and lesbians stories from Muslims. The histories have been filmed under great risk in countries that would never have allowed to film if permission had been requested

It took more than five years and 12 countries to film it. "A Jihad for love" vindicates the compatibility of homosexuality and Islam by interpreting the Islamic concept of Jihad as the way to God and not as the deformed concept of Holly War.

She's a boy I knew

(Canada, 2007)
Director: Gwen Haworth
Duration: 70'

The parents loose their son, the sisters' a brother and maybe the most difficult of all, a wife looses her husband Steven Haworth, when he decides to follow the calling of his true identity and faces the long process to become Gwen, the director of this documentary. In this bold autobiography, Gwen shows a great talent in filmmaking by using many archive images, phone messages and even cartoons to show us the success of her sex reassignment story. Refreshing for its sincerity, "She's a boy I knew" transcends the physical transformations and becomes a moving story of family ties and unconditional love.

Au-delà de la haine

France 2005
Director: Olivier Meyrou
Duración: 85'
Spanish premier.

After admitting his homosexuality, 29-year-old Francois Chenude is beaten to death by 3 skinheads and is thrown into a pond in the French city of Reims. As the title suggests, his family has overcome its pain to go beyond the rage, which they do not want to underpin their lives from now on. To tell this story Meyrou keeps off all the obvious paths. We never see the killers' faces, and there are no reconstructions or police investigations. On the contrary, the director concentrates on letting us listen to the family in the preparation for the trial and see the surprising understanding they show towards the killers of their son. Beyond Hate is a documentary that strengthens victims and leaves the feeling that there is still hope for a civilised society.