THAT UGANDAN FLAMING HOMOSEXUAL

We are honoered to welcome DeLovie Kwagala, also known as Papa De, as our new artist in residence! Please join us in inaugurating their residency with a screening of their film, That Flaming Ugandan Homosexual.

The images are missing. Superimposed by the experiences of violence, the memory images are missing, warped visions of the past. And how are we supposed to know who we are when the images of childhood and the emotional sketches of our growing up have been erased? DeLovie Kwagala aka Papa De is a filmmaker, activist and photographer. As such, they use the camera to create images that are necessary for their own becoming.

The short film THAT UGANDAN FLAMING HOMOSEXUAL tells the story of growing up in Uganda from a personal perspective. Meanwhile, the country, its government, is notorious for persecuting homosexuals; draconian punishments – in 2023, President Yoweri Museveni signed an anti-homosexual law that amounts to a death threat – create an atmosphere of fear and  constant repression characterizes everyday life. Delovie Kwagala explains that the film tells a story about their constant becoming, rooted in their traumatic experience of growing up “different” but never knowing what “different” meant. It is about navigating their sexuality and identity through a homophobic society to eventually become the first openly non-binary queer photographer in Uganda. It shows how their anger and hunger to be heard and seen transforms into my activism and commitment to a collective articulation of African queerness and resilience.