This amazing and game-changing piece of celluloid detailly addresses the very subtle issue of what it means to be a queer transnational, both intrinsically within the individuals’ countries of origin and extrinsically when it comes to the process of integration in the country of adoption—which is made more difficult by the trauma response that reflects upon one’s upbringing in what it can potentially be a rather narrow-minded and backwards reality.
Developing a sense of double belonging is a dynamic that is often hardened by racist views and culture shocks. Mohabeer shows how the latter is made even more difficult by a plethora of unaddressed problems, such as the lack of development of a sense of double belonging. This leads to a vacuum of fluidity in representation, which also symbolizes the experience of an LGBT member in a reality coerced by strict religious views and ridiculous myths about being gay.
By splitting her storytelling into fragments fabulously channeled through avant-garde and experimental aesthetic, Mohabeer marvelously portrays what it entails for Indo-Caribbean and black LGBTQ to endure a diaspora from their native country to Canada. The film also explores the importance of embracing rich creole values, as well as validating the hardship that comes with growing up genderqueer, non-binary, or trans in a backward environment. In these settings, the very same people advocating for LGBTQ rights having to comply to family customs by behaving or dressing according to the household’s set of values, or sometimes having to deal with the sad reality of being outed by a family member. The film boldly explores the importance of reclaiming not only the terms ‘Coolie’ or ‘Dougla’ per se, but more importantly the sense of identity that they embody.
In a process similar to the N-word and the reclamation of it by the black community, the repossession of the coolie and dougla definitions translates from its racial meaning to a larger spectrum of resonance that touches feminism, the very meaning of being genderqueer or non-binary, and the importance of the use of gender pronouns in this day and age. We witness a subtle yet powerful process directed against the erasure of queer Indo-Caribbean within the Canadian culture, against the very appalling, yet highly liminal ‘brown body’ generalization, all the while nurturing an inquisitive, understanding, and positive inclination not only towards the queer coolies individuals but also in relation to some of the stigmatizing contexts they were raised in.
The compelling need for representation is very transparent in the documentary, fitting the indo-Caribbean and Ghanan identities within the sphere of the queer identity. The issues of objectification and fetishization are also pinpointed, along with the transnational influences such as films and music that were, to a certain extent, helping to normalize being gay even back in the 1980s/1990s. Mohabeer pushes the boundaries of the very meaning of a generalized definition, spoken by many and fully understood by few. Highly Recommended.