LGBTI Seychelles June film festival |20 June 2022

HC Lynch looks on as the chairperson of the LGBTI Sey, Naddy Vidot, cuts a cake to celebrate the occasion (Photo: Thomas Meriton)

British High Commission hosts third movie screening

The British High Commission and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual, Intersex (LGBTI) Seychelles, last Friday night screened a movie at the British High Commissioner’s residence at Bel Air, as part of the LGBTI Seychelles June film festival.

The LGBTI film festival, a first in the country, was launched at a ceremony held in early June at the residence of the French ambassador to Seychelles, Dominique Mas. It was to mark the beginning of the pride month, June, where communities around the world come together to celebrate their sexual identity and freedom to be who they are.

The film that was screened at HC Patrick Lynch’s residence was titled ‘Everybody’s talking about Jamie’, a feature British film adaptation of the musical teenager from Sheffield who wants to be a drag queen. It evolves around bullying, self discovery and self acceptance.

This was the third film to be played in a series of films for the ongoing festival with the first LGBTI film played for the festival was a French feature film called ‘120 battements par minute’ (‘120 beats per minute’), which received the Grand Prix of the jury at the Cannes film festival in 2017 and a César for the best film in 2018. The film was played at the Deepam Cinema on June 4, 2022. The series of four-short films were played on Saturday June 11, 2022 during a workshop at Eden Blue Hotel on sexual orientation, gender identity, bodily autonomy and integrity.

In welcoming the LGBTI community and friends at his residence, HC Lynch said, "The British High Commission is very proud to support LGBTI Sey and we salute the activists here in Seychelles, and across the world, who are working for progress. We are clear that opposition to bigotry and prejudice should never be an à la carte menu. There is no credibility in opposing racism and sexism if we are not serious about opposing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity”.

He went on to add that the campaigning of LGBTI Sey emphasises the primacy of love in all human relationships and that love is not a threat to anyone and is not something that should be feared.

“We know that throughout the world there are many millions of people who hide their sexual orientation and gender identity because of fear of discrimination, repression and even death. We all have a shared responsibility to challenge such injustice and also to ensure that the communities we will live in do not provide enabling environments for hatred,” HC Lynch said.

Naddy Vidot, the chairperson of the non-government organisation that advocates for sexual orientation and gender identity rights in Seychelles, said that the reason for holding the LGBTI film festival was for people to see their struggles, their joyous moments and fears and to inspire the other LGBTI in the country who are still afraid to express their way of life.

“I want the LGBTI community who are sitting at home because they are too afraid to visibly support such events that it’s ok, you may not be ready to be out and proud today but we are working on creating safe spaces that will accept and respect you for who you are when you are ready,” said Mr Vidot who noted that he hopes with protective policies, legislative reform and social change the LGBTI community can be that little bit more proud.

The evening included a cake cutting ceremony and refreshments.

The festival will end on Thursday June 23 at 6pm at Hilton Labriz Gastro Lounge with two films – ‘Demavouz Mon Kor’, a story about a young man torn between his culture, his religion and sexuality in Reunion and ‘Kapana’, a story about two lives being intersected after one unlikely meeting in a bar in Namibia, a country where sodomy is still a crime and gay relationships are stigmatised.

Patrick Joubert