Film
Kino-Q & RA XTRA: Rafiki, dir. Wanuri Kahiu (2018)

Thu, 06/27/2019
Landmark's E Street Cinema

This event is part of the Goethe-Institut New York's "Queer as German Folk" series, with which we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots as a milestone in the fight for gender diversity and equality.

"Queer as German Folk" is a project of the Goethe-Instituts North America in cooperation with the Schwules Museum Berlin, and the Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung).

Realized in cooperation with The DC Center for the LGBT Community, The Rainbow History Project, and Whitman-Walker Health.

#queerasgermanfolk #qagf #stonewall50 #smu #bpb

As a part of the Goethe-Institut North America’s Queer as German Folk series – in which we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn Uprising as a milestone in the fight for gender diversity and equality – the Goethe-Institut Washington and its many local project partners have selected a number of culturally- and historically-significant films from Germany and North America, highlighting various aspects of queer rights movements. We present Kino-Q, a film series that guides viewers through parts of this history, paired with expert-led discussions.

Rafiki
Kenya, 2018, 82 min., Director: Wanuri Kahiu

Rafiki is the story of friendship and tender love that grows between two young women, Kena and Ziki, amidst family and political pressures around LGBT rights in Kenya. The film had ist international premiere in the "Un Certain Regard" section at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival; it was the first Kenyan film to be screened at the festival.

Kena helps her father John run a small convenience store in Nairobi as he campaigns for local election. She lives with her mother, who isn’t on speaking terms with John. Kena begins flirting with Ziki, a neighborhood girl with colorful hair – who also happens to be the daughter of Peter, the political rival of Kena’s father. The two have a number of romantic dates and become very close, but there are tensions about displaying their affection in public because of Kenya’s laws against homosexuality. Between pressure from their families and from the society in which they live, Kena and Ziki attempt to make their relationship work anyway.

Wanuri Kahiu’s first feature film FROM A WHISPER, based on the real events surrounding the 1998 twin bombings of US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania won Best Narrative Feature in 2010 at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, as well as five awards at the African Movie Academy Award, including Best Director and Best Screenplay. She is part of AFROBUBBLEGUM, a collective of African artists whose ambition is to create fun, frivolous and fierce work.

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