OUTFEST 2015: A GAY GIRL IN DAMASCUS -- THE AMINA PROFILE

A scene from A Gay Girl in Damascus: The Amina Profile.

When she is not there

By Miranda Inganni

In 2011, Sandra Bagaria, a Frenchwoman living in Canada and Amina Abdallah Arraf, a Syrian-American woman living in Damascus, Syria, meet online and begin courting one another. They sext, encourage each other’s creativity, and forge a bond that spans the thousands of physical miles separating them. They fall in love.

With Bagaria's support, Arraf starts a blog called “A Gay Girl in Damascus” as an outlet for her LGBT activism against the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was already cracking down on Syrian protesters.

Already out to her family, Arraf posted daily (and sometimes more often than that) about attending protests and the struggle she faces. After the secret police come to arrest her one night, Arraf's father (knowing his political connections will serve him well) stands up for his daughter and refuses to let them take her away. In response, Arraf pens a piece entitled, “My father, the hero.” Bagaria, concerned, but proud of her girlfriend, reposts the piece on social media and the press picks it up.

From there Arraf becomes a poster child for an underrepresented community struggling against a despicable government. Bagaria and Arraf continue their long-distance love affair despite Arraf's warnings that her phone has been tapped and she is being watched all the time. Eventually, Sandra’s worst fears are confirmed with she finds out Amina has been abducted. Radio silence.

Spurred by this twist in events, Sandra reaches out to the online activist community, reporters and even the US state department in hopes of tracking down Arraf. And then a strange thing happens. No one can find her.

Travelling around the globe to talk with folks who had been online friends of Arraf's, plus others who were now simple trying to discover the truth behind the mystery, Bagaria unravels a truth that is stranger than fiction.

Directed by Sophie Derespe, A Gay Girl in Damscus: The Amina Profile painstakingly exposes a selfish hoax perpetrated by a manipulative and duplicitous ass. Unfortunately, but perhaps deliberately, the documentary does not explore the many layers of psychologically fuckedupness (clinical term) going on here. Nevertheless, The Amina Profile is told with tact, suspense and tenderness.

 

 

The Amina Profile screens at Outfest Film Festival: July 17, 5 p.m., DGA 2. For more information: Amina.

 

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PSIFF 2013: CAUGHT IN THE WEB

Ye Lanqiu (Yuanyaun Gao) in Caught in the Web.

Spinning yarns

By Miranda Inganni

Caught in the Web tells the tale of a terminally ill woman’s online character assassination in director Chen Kaige’s (Farewell My Concubine) latest film.

One day, budding news reporter Yang Jiaqi (Luodan Wang) secretly records on her phone a seemingly rude and selfish woman on a bus. Through Jiaqi’s cousin’s girlfriend (and Jiaqi’s housemate), Chen Ruoxi (Chen Yao) -- a young woman establishing herself as a reporter -- the video goes viral and becomes the topic of the day. Unbeknown to them, the video’s subject, Ye Lanqiu (Yuanyuan Gao), has just learned that she has advanced lymphatic cancer.

Lanqiu becomes an Internet villain overnight. Known simply as “Sunglasses Girl,” until her jealous colleague identifies her online, the scandal sends Lanqiu into hiding, but not until Jiaqi and her cousin, Yang Shoucheng (Mark Chao) film Lanqiu’s sincere apology for the ordeal.

In the meantime, Lanqiu has asked her boss, company president Shen Liushu (Xuegi Wang) for a loan and time off from her executive assistant position. Unfortunately for all involved, Mr. Shen’s wife (Chen Hong) interrupts the tearful moment and misreads the situation.

Lanqiu ends up hiring Shoucheng to ostensibly protect her from herself and to experience as much as possible out of the time that she has left.

And that’s only the first part of this China's most recent Oscar submission for Best Film in a Foreign Language. Whew!

With more plot twists and turns than any historic (or histrionic) romance, Caught in the Web is entertaining and intriguing. Mrs. Shen finds herself in a loveless marriage to a husband who relishes his power more than his wife or wealth. Mr. Shen enjoys manipulating the lives of those who he believes have caused him some harm, including his wife. Ruoxi will stop at nothing to establish her career in the industry while Jiaqi merely wants to play ball in the big league. Shoucheng wants to be a loyal boyfriend to Ruoxi, but finds himself falling for Lanqiu. Lanqiu on the other hand, as the only one who knows that her time is limited, doesn’t want to allow herself to get too close to anyone, even at the cost of her own reputation.

The performances throughout this drama/comedy are equally as excellent as the levels of intrigue. The human capacity for a knee-jerk response to even perceived gossip is an overwhelming theme to Caught in the Web, as is the point that anyone at any time can be destroyed by the power of the inter-webs.

 

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