Transnational pride, global closets and regional formations of screen activism: documentary LGBTQ narratives from Turkey

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Çakirlar, C. ORCID: 0000-0003-1171-8635, 2017. Transnational pride, global closets and regional formations of screen activism: documentary LGBTQ narratives from Turkey. Critical Arts, 31 (2), pp. 44-60. ISSN 0256-0046

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Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2017.1345966

Abstract

This study explores three documentary projects from Turkey, namely Proudly Trans in Turkey (by Gabrielle Le Roux, 2012), My Child (by Can Candan, 2013), and Trans X Istanbul (by Maria Binder, 2014). Attempting to make visible various spaces and formations of LGBTQ activism in Turkey, these collaborative projects can be considered as practices of screen activism that critically reflect on their own circulation, spectatorial address, ethnographic accent, and documentary aesthetic. Attempting to contest modes of the transnational gaze which reifies the saviour discourses of the Gay International and its globalised imperatives of liberation and pride, this discussion examines the extent to which the regional complexities of intersectional LGBTQ activism are compromised by the investment in these activist subjects’ global humanitarian value and international intelligibility. Questioning the ways in which these documentaries tackle their spectatorial address as well as the global and local complexities of sexual politics, this study aims to demonstrate how various forms/styles of documentary could contest, negotiate, and reinvent a transnational gaze that critically engages with the ethnographic constructions of sexuality, community, identity, and nation.

Item Type:

Journal article

Publication Title:

Critical Arts

Creators:

Çakirlar, C.

Publisher:

Routledge

Date:

2017

Volume:

Number: