Launch of Kenyan Christian Queer documentary film

The documentary film Kenyan Christian Queer is about to be released! The film offers an intimate portrait of a group of LGBT Christians in Kenya, their courage, determination and hope. It specifically features the first LGBT church in Nairobi, Kenya. Called Cosmopolitan Affirming Community, this group of young queer Christians seeks to promote an inclusive and progressive form of Christianity, in a rather conservative society.

The film is the result of a collaboration between Adriaan van Klinken (LUCAS/PRHS, University of Leeds), the British-Nigerian film maker Aiwan Obinyan, and David Ochar of Cosmopolitan Affirming Church. Funding for the film was received through an Impact Acceleration Account award of the Economic and Social Science Research Council in the UK, through the University of Leeds' Social Science Institute.

The film is related to Van Klinken's book Kenyan, Christian, Queer: Religion, LGBT Activism, and Arts of Resistance in Africa, that was published by Penn State University Press last year. Both the book and the film seek to foreground how religion, specifically Christianity, is not only a driving force of socio-political homophobia in African societies (and indeed across the world), but also serves as a site of queer activism and empowerment.

The film has been submitted to various film festivals across the world. Please check out the website www.kcqfilm.com for updates on where and when the film will be screened. To get a taste of the film, please watch the trailer here: