half a life
a friend of mine suggested that i go see the movie half a life (halbes leben in original) which is a documentary about homosexuals living in istanbul. the movie has not been released in turkey yet (chances are, it will not be released in the near future. maybe we’ll have to wait for outistanbul, gay and lesbian films festival). from the website: “homosexuals are only tolerated in turkey, as long as they stay invisible… the film offers five personal stories of turkish queers who do not want to hide any longer.”
There was this transvestite neighbor of mine, living in Tarlabasi, who said to me “We start living after the sunset, and hide back in our derelict slums before the sunrise… Kurdish people are the major inhabitants of the area, they are also the deprived and alienated dropouts of the society, and they don’t allow us to stroll around in the daytime…”
And this “half-life” is still going on…
Link seems to not be working for me
if you mean the outistanbul site, i heard the organisation is having some problems for some time now. this year’s festival was cancelled due to some regulatory problems. no official statements till now. i guess they are redesigning the site.