Campbell X, one of the most exciting LGBTQI filmmakers in the UK, has taken over Birds’ Eye View for PRIDE 2020 and has curated a mixture of features and shorts that explore the Black Queer experience.
His curated selection fell under two strands – last week it was HOME, and this week, PASSING.
“I wanted to include shorts in this programme because as Black LGBTQIA filmmakers we very rarely get resources to make feature films about our Black queer lives. I wanted to also include men (both cis and trans) as well as women because when we say #BlackLivesMatter the urgency of the moment is to be united across gender, sexual orientation, class, disability and nation.” Campbell X
Campbell X directed the debut award-winning queer urban romantic comedy feature film STUD LIFE (2012) which has just been featured as one of the Top 10 Best Black British Films in the Guardian and is available to watch on the BFI Player. Campbell directed and produced the short film DES!RE, and the documentary VISIBLE – which headlined the Scottish Queer Film Festival in December 2018. Campbell also directed the award-winning LGBTQ web series DIFFERENT FOR GIRLS, and is one of the directors of the transgender web series Spectrum London.
In 2013 Campbell was selected to be on the jury for Short films for Outfest LGBT film Festival in Los Angeles, the jury for Lili Award in MIX Copenhagen in 2015, the IRIS Prize, and Doc N Roll Festival and in 2018 in the Short Film Festival. Campbell is currently developing his second feature fiction film produced by Stella Nwimo. In 2015 Campbell was voted in the top 50 LGBTIQ people in the UK by the Independent on Sunday Pink List.
He is also the co-founder with Neelu Bhuman of Wahala Film Fund, a completion fund for short films by and about QTIPOC people.
SELECTION 2
FILMS AROUND THE THEME OF PASSING
Campbell X
“Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes Feeling Heart directed by Tracy Heather Strain about the legendary playwright Lorraine Hansberry (Raisin in the Sun) is an important historical documentary about a previously elusive person. There had been rumours that Lorraine Hansberry was a lesbian. I am often cautious about people reclaiming historical figures as LGTBQIA without evidence that was how they themselves identified. This film is meticulously researched and shows without a doubt Lorraine Hansberry’s erotic desires were towards women, using her own words and from her archives. The documentary is stunning and a labour of love by the filmmaker. It warms my heart to know that “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” a rallying cry for the civil rights movement in the 1960s was written in memory of her by queer civil rights singer Nina Simone, and I often wonder if they were lovers.”
“Stories of Our Lives by the Nest Collective in Kenya is a collection of exquisitely filmed short films about LGBTQIA lives in Kenya. They are erotic, confrontational and intimate. It is still illegal to be LGBTQIA in Kenya and the colonial laws laid down by the British, are being contested as we speak. The actors risked their careers to be in the films. When I saw this film I was struck by how privileged I was to live in the West while still fighting homophobia/transphobia/racism and white supremacy. But my life was not in immediate danger like these artists who still managed to make such beautiful art. I am in awe of their resilience. The book Story of Our Lives is still available for sale and I urge people to buy it.”
“Lucah Rosenberg-Lee’s Passing is one of the few documentaries to deal with being Black and transmasculine and also to be made by a Black trans man – it explores the experiences of three black men who have undergone gender transitions and explores issues they face with “passing” as cisgender men.”
