LAST NIGHT A TRANSVESTITE WAS KILLED

The story behind ANOCHE MATARON UN TRAVESTI is powerful. The watchman of the place I used to work at in 1993 told me how he witnessed a transvestite - sexual worker - being killed the night before. He did not do
anything because these are "disposable human beings"... it was shocking... this concept jumps into the second half of the video which was the notion of disposable people: transient and homeless people that were called like this by the police. Most of them were in this situation because of their addiction to drugs - which is an enormous problem in Colombia, where the prices are very low and the purity of the drugs makes them very addictive, especially the Basuco, the local version of Crack. I used news footage of these people to prove that we have no right to call them disposable in a society that is already half disposable. I was also mocking a TV commercial for disposable cups and dishes that insinuated everyone should eat out of disposable plates to avoid being infected by any disease - implying the HIV virus could be present in the used plates...

The third part of this experimental video is an homage to my favorite jazz performer, Billie Holiday, who states in her 1950s autobiography "Lady sings the blues" that
drug addiction should be considered a matter of public health and not of public safety. Drug addicts should be sent to a hospital
instead of jail. The wonderful performer reading from Holiday's book is Constanza Camelo, now living and working in Montreal. The night of the premiere of this video, in the 2nd Franco-Latinamerican Videoart Festival, I went in drag. My first time outside a performance context. I had to be consequent with my actions, members of the GLBT community were being killed by death squads or rich college brats, and I had to state I was as queer as all these anonymous victims. I got an incredible support, but also a lot of very cold looks from people who never looked at me in the same way they used to. I would dare saying that this was the first avatar of Patty E. Patetik.

I cannot believe how pertinent the message of this experimental video is today in the context of Colombia in 2007, where Gay and Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered rights, and human rights in general are still an issue. A big chunk of the population lives in sub-human conditions, and drugs are still ruling the economy and affecting every single aspect of the Colombian life.

Santiago Echeverry directed and performed in this video, and edited it with the help of Esther Saenz.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Colombia
• politics
• video
• drugs
• transvestite
• drag
• queen
• disposable
• culture
• billie
• holiday
• human
• rights

[calitri1257]

y mañana a otro

[stylecollective]

Well Done. Well done indeed. Bravo...

[altorrr]

Der Beitrag über Drogen hat mir sehr gefallen.

Me gusto mucho el discurso de las drogas.

Saludes