Jamaica has the reputation of being one of the most violently anti-gay countries on earth.
Male homosexual acts are criminalized – and can be punished with up to 10 years of hard time in prison. While this law is not actively enforced, it is widely seen as a bulwark against immorality.
The BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival offers three screenings of "The Abominable Crime" on Saturday, March 29, and Sunday, March 30 at the National Film Theatre at BFI Southbank, London. Award-winning Director Micah Fink and Maurice Tomlinson, who tells his story in the film, will be at all three screenings.
In Jamaica, male homosexual acts are criminalized - and can be punished with up to 10 years of hard time in prison. The anti-buggery law is a legacy of the island's British colonial past.
With support from the Pulitzer Center, Fink spent more than four years traveling between Jamaica, Canada and the Netherlands to follow Jamaicans who were under the constant threat of harassment and violence because of their sexuality. Tomlinson, a human rights lawyer, leaves Jamaica after his marriage to another man is made public. Simone Edwards, a single mother who survives an anti-gay shooting, flees the country and seeks asylum in the Netherlands for her and her daughter.
All screenings at BFI Southbank
Belvedere Road
South Bank
London SE1 8XT
Saturday, March 29
2 pm
Saturday, March 29
8:45 pm
Sunday, March 30
1:10 pm
Purchase tickets through the BFI Film Festival website.
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Grantee
Micah Fink, the founder of Common Good Productions, is an award-winning producer, director and writer specializing in international affairs, public health, and environmental issues. He is also on the...