Review of Call Me Kuchu (2012) by Steven K — 27 Sep 2013

Documentaries are a mixed bag: some try so hard to make their subject matter palatable to a wider audience that they unintentionally dilute the subject matter. Not this one. This is an unflinching look at a heartbreakingly vulnerable community of gay activists in a country where that can get you killed.

Their courage gives new meaning to the word "heroic". They literally stared down the monster of hatred and condemnation, and not surprisingly paid a price to do so. what's not surprising is that some evangelical opportunist would choose Uganda as the perfect place to spout his hate-filled rants and thereby incite and encourage violence against non-violent people who are gay.

The Ugandan government officials and tabloid-like newspapapers come across as embarrassingly ignorant, particularly with their insistence that gays are a "threat" to families and that gays "recruit" young people.

Like so many thick-headed, myopic people throughout history people before them , they cling desperately to the notion that being gay is a "choice" when it is innate identity. That line of ignorant reasoning allows them to do what religious fanatics have done throughout time, wage war against other people in the name of moral and spiritual superiority.

My opinion only, but there is a word for such hate-filled humans: HYPOCRITES. This doc shows them once again fanning the flames of hate and ignoring three simple, but powerful words in the Word: God is love.

Luckily, these Ugandan activists had worlwide support in their resistance to laws that would've made being gay worthy of imprisonment and perhaps even death. Interestingly, this doc not only illustrates the hypocrisy of religious hate-mongers, but the power of the Internet to humiliate and shame a country all to willing to play into their hands.

This is one very exceptional and brave documentary; don't miss it.