
Young and Gay: Jamaica's Gully Queens
In Kingston, a group of homeless gay and transgender teenagers have built a home inside a storm drainage gully, the only place they can live without being attacked for who they are. The film follows several of these young people as they describe being thrown out of their family homes, chased through neighborhoods, and in some cases beaten or raped, with police showing little interest in pursuing the attackers. Interviews inside the gully show how the group has organized itself into something like a found family, sharing food and watching for danger together, while trips into the city reveal the harassment that follows them anywhere outside their hideout. Jamaican activists and religious figures appear on camera to explain the cultural and legal climate behind the violence, including laws that still criminalize gay sex. The camera stays close to its subjects rather than narrating over them, letting their own accounts of survival carry the film.