film

They Shine… On Being Gay in Morelos, Mexico

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Producer(s)	Gringoyo Productions
Director(s)	Greg Berger
Release Date	2002
Work In Progress	n
Runtime	13 min
Youth Media	n

Film Description

To be poor in Mexico is hard. To be poor in a small town in Mexico is harder. If you're a gay man living in those circumstances, things can get downright tricky. The village of Mazatepec in Mexico's rural state of Morelos has a small but vibrant gay culture, despite the discrimination and marginalization that gay men have to undergo there. In this collectively-produced documentary, four gay men recount the loves of their lives and the obstacles in their paths through their own narration and photographs. Their stories of love, of discrimination, and of acceptance depict the complexity of gay life in small-town Mexico.

They also tell of the villages' annual folkloric festival, the Mojiganga, which by longstanding local tradition is the day when sexual identities are publicly, playfully transgressed. Is the Mojiganga a spectacle by which the town's gay men make a spectacle of themselves for the laughter of the town? Is it the chance for the town's “straight” men to have a fleeting homosexual affair? Is it, as the town priest believes, a public scandal? Either way, it is a place where the gay men of Mazatepec can give free reign to their creative impulses, the day when “they shine.”

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Last Updated On:	May 22, 2012