Queer 1 Travel Queeries

Elliat Graney-Sauke: TRAVEL QUEERIES (documentary film)
Reactional text

Documentary called Travel Queeries portraits life of radical queers in contemporary Europe. Through simple talks, queer people from around Europe present their culture, art and mostly activism with the aim to approach the majority and spread awarness; beside the talks, we learn about their art (performances, festivals, etc.) and we learn about their progressive movement, which hopes to create permanent social change.
I was really intrigued by the words »radical queers«. Of course I knew there are activist movements, but this film was my first encounter with queer culture with such political tone. Director of Travel Queeries Elliat Graney-Sauke said: »Radical in general can be folks who just make mainstream gays/straights a bit uncomfortable because of how they push ideas/rules/norms.« Major problem with queer community is in my opion exactly that – they are making »other people« uncomfortable; may that be radical queers with their strong beliefs or may that be big masquerades for Pride events. Maybe showing the community in a more »hetero-acceptable« way would change minds of a few conservatives, but it would still repress queers by denying their true identity and it would be another lie to reassure hetero-oriented conformism. Structures of sexuality and gender always create a conflict; juxtaposing with differences in race, ethnicity or nationality which often result in different acceptance of sexuality.
Queer as a political identity is with it's »non-normativity« very challenging for the society; also, gay parades became more of a tourist attraction as anything else and they mostly lost their original meaning, which was also mentioned by the radicals in the documentary. The picture I got is, that queer politics suggest freedom to be different, it is some kind of coalition among opressed people. People who are interviewed for the film don't seem to seek for liberation, they just want their rights to be understood and recognized – it's about class struggle.
One of the things I noticed in the documentary is, that people from all around Europe wish to connect with queers from different countries. Here, I saw one dilemma – should they try to steer the mainstream LGBT movement in a more progressive direction, or should they work more with other progressive activists in groups that are not quuer-focused? Maybe, that would be a good idea, because the movement could expand to include a full range of other causes. If we combine activism revolving around sexual identity with movements organized around people of color, disabled, youth, women or working class, the the degree of success might be higher.
It was really sad to see the videos from the Pride in Serbia from 2001 and I feel the situation there still hasn't dramatically change, but as I already mentioned, parades in many other countries became more of entertainment shows than activists standing up for their rights. With that being said in the film, I did a little research about Prides around the world; of course the biggest problem with that is in America, where we could say marketing of various brands and corporate America tried to »marry« the Pride. There are many protesters and activists who are strongly against that and they also formed movements called for example Lesbian and Gays Against Imperialism; they state: »It's a movement, not a market!«
Yes, Pride should be about a real actual community, something that would actually make an intervention in people's lives and create opinions for people to exist outside of a mainstream consumerist identity.
I really liked the statement I saw in the film, where in London Pride, activist would march with banners against police opression and the queer police men and women marched right behind them.
As a strong message of Travel Queeries, I recognized an attempt to take back control of what it means to be queer from gay mainstream that refuses to adress any issues outside of an assimilationist axis. I think that rushing towards assimilation is a type of erasure of everything that is important and substantive about queer culture.
Beauty of queer activism is for me also in that, how they remain clear about their message, but they're also being spectacular, decadent and satirical. They're critical and fun at the same time.
The film offers a new approach to the way sexuality is conceptualized and it also provides a critique of traditional gender roles. What I really liked is, that it doesn't force us to change our minds in anything, but it gives us the opportunity to accept something that might be different, just by listening to their stories.