A surprise: This Nigerian drama portrays gay love positively (July 2017, ).
The actors perform well, presenting a more positive and realistic representation of gay characters than what we usually see. It is well established that a person’s sexual orientation cannot be changed, and there is no universally accepted reason why people are gay.īut overall, the film is a good one. Lots of evidence shows that there is nothing wrong with being gay and that homosexuality is a valid sexual orientation. Of course, that’s no excuse for spreading untruths about homosexuality. “We were looking at Nigerian society so it won’t look like we are encouraging gayism, because our constitution is against it,” he said. When NoStringsNG reached out to the creators of the film at HumbleLand Art Academy, academy founder, and CEO Humble Dhera Francis said that they did not want the public to see the film as pro-gay since Nigerian law condemns homosexuality. The two gay lovers in the film are shown in the end to have been converted from being homosexuals and have turned into best friends. It takes the same old religious twist: Nollywood always demonizes homosexuality and presents it as a problem and as curable. The major concern with the film is that the ending is a disappointing cliché. Still, there are some very good scenes, especially when Judge, one of the lead characters, courageously challenges his uncle after being condemned for being gay.Īlso, the sex scenes could have been presented better, but kudos for their efforts it was more than what could have been expected. In certain scenes, you almost have to struggle to hear what the actors are saying.įrom beginning to end, the storyline and the whole direction of the film are vague. It is obvious that the actors are amateurs, but they play those roles fairly well.Īs is common with Nollywood films, video quality is fair and sound quality is poor. The film starts off showing two gay men who are in love with each other. Its actors are little known: Humble Dhera F, Amaka Smart, Ubi Onuomah, Ikeh Ejedike, Ifeanyi Sunday, Callista Iwu, John Damian, etc. The 22-minute Nollywood film “Gay’s Diary Reloaded” is available online on YouTube from HumbleLand TV, a local Nollywood platform.
A gay-themed Nollywood short film successfully portrays two men in a deep romantic relationship but, in the end, utterly fails to show the reality of what it means to be gay.