Rainbow Nation, a documentary about the hardships faced by the country’s LGBTQIA+ community, was screened for several dozen people at a venue in Nyanga on Wednesday last week.
Written by Marieke Dermul and IIse Skooneknaep, and filmed in various parts of the country, the documentary highlights the stark contrast between the South African constitution, which protects LGBTQIA+ rights, and the hate crimes that the LGBTQIA+ community faces daily.
Ms Demul, who directed the film, said it was meant to educate and create awareness, fostering a deeper understanding of the LGBTQIA+ community as individuals entitled to the same human rights enshrined in the constitution, regardless of their sexuality or gender identity.
“I made it after having talks with South Africans. I had to drive at night to connect the dots. At times, my driver would tell me it is dangerous to leave. But I have some positives in the areas like seeing children shouting at me ‘umlungu, umlungu’. It was not easy to document it but we managed,” she said.
The Nyanga Art Development Centre arranged the screening, and its community arts programme manager, Mthetho Mzongwana, said homophobia was the new struggle.
“We are happy that this disease will be exposed. We believe the film will open the eyes of many. There is a new struggle, but we have to work on it.”
Mr Mzongwana thanked the Belgian government for supporting and funding many of the NADC’s programmes, including the screening of the documentary in Nyanga.
Representatives of the Belgian government, Nicolas Fierens Gevaert, the consul general of Belgium, and Nicolas Vanderviver, the deputy general representative of Flanders in southern Africa, both attended the screening and praised the documentary.
“It is about the most important thing that makes us human: the right to define who we are on our own terms. The right to freely love and be loved. No one should be treated like a criminal, to live in hiding or shame simply because of who they are and who they love,” said Mr Vanderviver.
The documentary emphasised the stark disconnect between the guarantees enshrined in South Africa’s constitution and the harsh realities of everyday life for anyone who was queer, including, stigma, harassment, violence, discrimination, limited access to health care, forced displacement and a lack of legal protection, he said.
“Just because a country has supportive laws and a progressive constitution that guarantees equality and legalises same sex marriages, such as in South Africa or in Flanders, does not automatically stop hate speech, violence, and unequal treatment of LGBTQIA+ people. The documentary shows how much more work is to be done,” he said.
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