transgender

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The Pearl of Africa (Uganda) – A Documentary of Illegal Love

The Pearl of Africa Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

If you think it’s easy being yourself, you should watch The Pearl of Africa. You’ll meet Cleo, a transgender woman, struggling for acceptance within an country where it’s illegal for her to be herself. In fact, for ‘aggravated homosexuality’ she could be executed. Find out how she manages to live by watching this documentary on Netflix.

Image result for the pearl africa

Why Watch The Pearl of Africa?
  • To find out how hard it is for some people to be themselves
  • Meet the LGBT movement in Uganda, fighting for human rights
  • Learn a bit about the sex reassignment surgery process
  • Meet one of the most supportive partners there is
The Breakdown

We first meet Cleo lying half conscious on a hospital bed. It’s not clear what has happened. However, the stop motion animations of one figure punching another figure in high heels leads us to assume that she has been abused.

Uganda is a country with so much diversity, but there still lingers so much prejudice. Whilst different languages and religions coexist, homosexuality has been outlawed. Cleo and her boyfriend would get life imprisonment for a single homosexual act, and would face execution for ‘aggravated homosexuality.’ Simply put, it’s illegal for them to exist.

The director intentionally alternates between the news footage of angry protestors protesting against homosexuality and the serene relationship between Cleo and Nelson. On the one hand you have people protesting a sexual orientation they think is not normal. Then on the other hand you have Cleo and Nelson, a happy couple in love. Juxtaposing the two scenes makes the protestors position appear even more absurd as it shows they are directly protesting against happiness and love.

Conclusion & What to Watch Next

The Pearl of Africa shows you just how hard it is for some people to be themselves. Cleo is forced to leave the country to simply be the person she is. However, this is also a documentary of the strength of love. You’ll see how Cleo and Nelson struggle together to overcome their illegality.

To watch more check out God Loves Uganda which explores the role of American religious extremists in establishing anti-homosexuality in Uganda.

If you want to watch more African film which highlight social issues check out the fun Africa United, Beauty and the Dogs, and Black Girl. All are great film.

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The Fabulous Ones – Outfest Los Angeles 2023

The Fabulous Ones is a warm home-made story featuring real friends reuniting to relive their memories from 30 years ago. The drama comes from a fictionalized will of one of their old friends, but the personal, real stories provide the substance for this docufiction.

From the tone of the film, it feels like most of this film is a documentary. The characters all get along too closely for it to feel fictionalized. However, the director uses different film types to blur the past and present, and also reality and fiction. Sepia-tinted film makes some shots feel old – as if shot 30 years ago in the character’s past – and these are edited alongside clearer shots to indicate the present. Some scenes also alternate between these two types of film to make it unclear what is fictionalized and true to reality, such as the seance and re-enactment of their ‘dead’ friend. The blurring of reality and fiction and past and present through the type of film also fictionalizes their pre-transition lives. Home footage and photos of the characters pre-transition, look like the scenes of the seance, making their pasts feel less real than the present.

Whilst their pre-transition lives are made to feel like the fictionalized parts of this documentary, The Fabulous Ones doesn’t shy away from sharing the characters’ real experiences as Trans-women. Throughout their reunion, the camera focuses on each character to hear their queer coming of age experience and how their individual families and the society around them reacted. These scenes draws you closer to the characters by sharing their more intimate experiences, and in doing so, holds the film back from going full happy-dream with the fictionalized elements of the film. These moments ground the film in the unfortunate reality that not everyone is able to be who they are without prejudice.

If you’re looking for a quirky docufiction that lightly explores some heavy personal experiences through a fictionalized will left by a ‘dead’ friend, this film is for you.