Friday, April 11, 8:30pm
Instituto Cervantes
Chicago
[scroll down for the flyer]
"Tal Como Somos"
The Background
As a feature documentary film, Tal Como Somos (Just as we are) examines the impact of stigma on gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals trying to live and identify differently than others in a traditional culture that values religion, machismo, and family. The Tal Como Somos outreach project conceptually emerged as a result of more than ten years of research by Dr. Jesus Ramirez-Valles, University of Illinois at Chicago scholar and executive producer, on HIV-AIDS and stigmatization among Latino gay men and transgender persons across North and South America. From the beginning, Valles, Producer/Director Judith McCray, and their creative team determined that Tal Como Somos needed to venture beyond easy compartmentalization as a “gay” or “coming out” film. Instead, they focused on crafting an authentic portrait of seldom heard voices and unknown faces, introducing individuals whose lives and identities are normal and worthy of respect and acceptance. Intending to reach a primary audience of heterosexual adults and youth (with a priority placed on U.S. and worldwide Latino audiences), the team embarked on a year long search for individual stories that would evocatively reveal how stigma and homophobia shatters and shapes one’s self-acceptance and behavior.
Team on a Mission
The mission was clear: expose the realities of living within a culture where machismo, faith, and family loyalties often dictate strict rules about sexuality or gender identity – and stricter consequences for breaking those rules. With this mission, Valles and McCray convened meetings and interviews with gay and transgender Latino men and women in demographically diverse U.S. cities to select people with important stories to share and who were visually charismatic. To showcase the universal effects of misunderstanding, rejection, forgiveness and survival from several distinct points of view, the team ultimately selected seven individuals of different ages, from different walks of life, all immigrants or children of immigrants from different Latin countries.
The Results
Tal Como Somos’ presents five concise stories about people coming to terms with being gay, bisexual, and transgender, while encountering condemnation and exclusion for having the audacity to live outside traditional boundaries. Respective segments focus on snapshot portraits of each character’s life as he or she grapples today with the effects of the past: their families, their religious beliefs, their educational upbringing and how these occurrences and relationships have shaped – and continue to shape – who they are and what they do now. The subjects themselves propel the storytelling, transitioning from their early rejections to self-acceptance via natural links in their experiences. Parents and family members are included, providing rare insights regarding their stru rstruggles to support and embrace their loved one’s differences.
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