Sequel to Pink Lounge - home to vivacious and fierce group of 'delinquents' who risk their lives, their freedom and their personal safety while eking out a brash, bold technicolour existence in Nigeria's sprawling metropolis of Lagos. ...See moreSequel to Pink Lounge - home to vivacious and fierce group of 'delinquents' who risk their lives, their freedom and their personal safety while eking out a brash, bold technicolour existence in Nigeria's sprawling metropolis of Lagos. Inspired by true events, Bailey Is Burning is set years before the highly controversial Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA) was passed into law in Nigeria, criminalising same-sex unions and homosexual sex in Africa's most populous nation. Following in the tradition of classics such as Paris is Burning, Pose and Legendary, this film tells the triumphant story of a band of queer outcasts who invent an alternative world to shelter themselves from the brutality of mainstream society, however, the characters of Bailey Is Burning face the additional challenge of legally-sanctioned ostracism and violence. Bailey Is Burning is both a celebration and documentation of the rise of "houses" in West Africa - i.e., alternative families and support systems for queer folk of all ages - years before that term was borrowed from Western gay pop culture. This feature is unique in its raw and passionate pursuit of social justice amongst a severely ostracised, brutalised and oppressed community of queer folk in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. It tells an urgent and important story of joy and celebration in the face of the worst of violent prejudice, homophobia most pressingly. Written by
Sheifunmi Yusuf
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