Queer Coolie-tudes
Luminal Film Club
•
1h 26m
Directed by Michelle Mohabeer • Documentary • 2019 • 87 minutes
Queer Coolie-tudes is a queer ethnography which utilizes decolonial aesthetics mirroring philosopher Édouard Glissant's concept of opacity to reclaim the racial slur of ‘Coolie’.
Visualizing the intergenerational lives, histories, creole identities, familial relations and sexualities of a diverse range of subjects from the queer Indo-Caribbean and Black Caribbean diasporas, the film is a nuanced poem of queer Indo-Caribbean diasporic creole identities; weaving mixtures of Black and Indian, Portuguese and Indo-Caribbean, Indo-Chinese-Caribbean, genderqueer, disabled and elder body, and drag gender identity performance.
"Each subject weaves the context of indentured labor and migration into stories of family history, identity and culture. The film creates a complete picture of marginalization – race, class, sex and sexuality." —Now Magazine
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