“Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America”: stories of four LGBTQ persons seeking refugee status or asylum (which are different processes)
“Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America”, a film by Tom Shepard, was sneak-previewed Thursday night at Landmark E St in Washington DC by the Reel Affirmations film festival.
The film traces four LGBTQ persons seeking to leave oppressive regimes in various developing countries, two of them refugees and two affirmative asylum seekers.
A young man came from Syria, from an abusive family, and lives with a volunteer in San Francisco who offers hosting. Later he travels to the United Nations to testify. He is quite proficient in English and quite charismatic and has two relationships during the film.
Another young man is more gender fluid and experiences more difficulties He gets a job at a concession at the San Francisco Giants stadium (there is a licensed MLB clip) but eventually winds up in a homeless shelter, which has a section for non-binary. Then he finds housing in a rural area toward Sacramento. Both of these persons finally win refugee status and the ability to work normally.
Two women came with temporary visas and need to apply to DHS for asylum status, and there are scenes showing them coached for their asylum interview. About two-thirds of the applications are turned down, but the film has a happy ending.
Some of the people in the film talk of fatwa’s against family members, and idea unthinkable in western democracies.
The film reminds us that the Trump administration has reduced legal asylum applications by 70%, and this probably incorporates detention in Mexico.
Numerous countries, especially in Africa and the Middle East, have extremely draconian anti-gay laws and customs. This includes both Islamic countries, and post-colonial Chrisrtian countries sub-Saharan. The basic reason sounds like group oppression or prejudice (intersectional political theory). But the deeper reason is probably more that tribes are very protective of their reproductive potential to survive as such with lineage. Often the tribes are patriarchal, and men who run them have their own sense of male sexuality and performance invested in the idea that others have to tow the line and fit in. For some men, knowing that others will “obey” enables them to function as providers and protectors, and in tribal worlds that kind of mentality seems necessary, when one is forced outside the liberal notion of rule of law.
Russia was not mentioned, but its 2013 anti-gay propaganda laws was largely motivated by low birth rates.
This film is one of the last that I saw in a theater before the COVIF19 lockdowns started.
Name: “Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America”
Director, writer: Tom Shepard
Released: 2020
Format: 1.85:1
When and how viewed: Reel Affirmations, 2020/2/27, Landmark E St, nearly full
Length: 81
Rating: NA
Companies: Move on, IVTS, PBS
Link: Variety
Stars: *****
(Posted: Friday, February 28, 2020 at 12 noon)