Alberto Castro Antezama He does not consider himself a director from the LGTBI community despite having three documentaries that go in that direction: Invasión Drag (2020), Salir del clóset (2023) and Arde Lima (2023); this last and most recent brought together several drag queens to find out what his family environment was like, his way of dealing with a sexist and retrograde society, and what his dreams and frustrations were.
“More than a director, I consider myself a filmmaker of the community LGBTI. I feel that being a member of the community has defined the content I create. Now that I want to get out of the documentary world, I feel that part of this worldview could permeate into fictional stories,” she tells Infobae Peru.
In Lima burns appear Stacy Malibu —who died in 2020 during the pandemic and to whom a posthumous tribute is paid—; Georgia Hartdrag queen who played Coco Marusix in the film Chabuca; and the same Ernesto Pimentelalthough she does not appear as the well-known Chola Chabuca, but rather as Perica de los Palotes. The documentary is accompanied by Tany de la Riva, Cristina Corazón, Dark Princess, La Langosta, Harmonik Minaj, Brit de Rapert (a participant in Peru’s Got Talent in 2022) and Alezz Andro, a pioneering drag king on the local scene.
In Coming out of the closetCastro Antezama’s second documentary with testimonies of homosexual men who faced discrimination and prejudice, the director had problems because several who had been recorded in that process asked that they not be in the final cut.
“In the case of Lima burns It was different because the obstacles came from before: getting some of the drag queens to want to allow us into their homes or getting family and friends to want to talk was a bit complicated. In Coming out of the closetas they were such strong testimonies, perhaps in some cases there were people who told things that they later regretted, not because they were bad, but because they were traumas or very personal things,” adds the director.
The father figure is absent in the documentary. There is no father who approaches his children like drag queens. The documentary filmmaker relates that the majority of drag queens They were much closer to their mothers, even when they just wanted someone close to them to come out.
“Let’s say that with all the characters I have interacted with, there is a greater closeness with the mother or the grandmother; women are the ones who mainly accompany them. Women in this country, a country so sexist and so conservative, play a crucial role and can identify a little more with the fear that a person feels. LGBTI when going out on the street and being recognized. A heterosexual man will never understand the complexity of what it is to be a woman and go out into the street afraid of being followed or harassed. Obviously, it is a different fear than that of a lesbian person, but it is also that fear of being recognized on the street and having something said to you or something happening. This makes women a little more supportive of the community. LGBTI“, mentions.
There is a moment in the documentary Lima burns in which the grandmother of Tany de la Riva He tells him that he would have preferred him to do something else. However, for the podcaster, this is part of the society in which our parents have grown up.
“In the end, mothers, fathers, grandparents are still children of the society that has raised them. Our society is very conservative. The grandmother would evidently give her life for her son, but that does not mean that she may not want her to be drag or that she may not approve of him being homosexual. At one point the grandmother says that in her house he is Anthony (Tany de la Riva) and in other places she does not know what he is like. There is also this thing that they are family members who support their children, who love them, but there is a complexity behind that. It is a half-hearted acceptance that perhaps is not even their fault, it is the fault of society, of how they have been raised and educated. But that grandmother would obviously give her life for you,” she argues.
Albert was surprised that Christina Heart will reveal in Lima is burning who is heterosexual. I had already met him in Drag Invasion, his first documentary, but he didn’t tell him anything. He states that “drag is a very vast and great art” and that, within the filming, it is a story that he found very interesting because “many heterosexual men are afraid of their femininity or of trying different things,” even though “ This has been changing in recent years.”
“He drag It involves using makeup, transformation, and clothing to exaggerate or satirize what we have been taught about being a man or a woman. drag queens that do not even pretend to be anthropomorphic; They could have alien features or something similar. “That idea of a straight person doing drag should make total sense, but we are used to seeing gay men or trans women doing drag,” she maintains.
Ernesto Pimentel appears in Lima burns. He does not play Chola Chabuca, but Perica de los Palotes because the television character that we all know is “infected by the media,” something that the director did not want. Even in the final credits she introduces herself with her original name, unlike the others, because she “does not consider herself a drag, she considers herself an actor who, due to things in life, has had to play female characters.” ”.
“The road gave me the luck to be able to record with Ernesto Pimentelwho for me is a paradigm of male characters who dress as women. Ernesto has survived 30 years playing a female character that is unique and special. Being able to film with him, and also doing so separately from his media persona, was very meaningful to me. It is an exceptional case; ordinary people may only associate him with his character, but for me it is important to show that he is an actor capable of playing female characters in a versatile way,” he says. Castro Antezama who prefers not to talk about the controversy in the middle of the film Chabuca.
Alberto remembers that the artist comes from the world of comedy, from the times when Risas y Salsa was broadcast. There, Pimentel got his own segment as the Chola Chabuca.
“The difference is that Ernesto was gay,” the director says. “That makes us interpret him differently. It also has to do with the fact that he doesn’t consider himself a drag queen, but rather an actor or a comedian.”
Lima is burning celebrates the drag queen, but also puts a critical eye. In the film, Christina Heart it affects that there is discrimination in the community LGBTI. Castro Antezama responds that this is “quite natural” because we are children of our parents and grandparents.
“If your parents are conservative, your teachers are conservative and society is conservative, you grow up with a conservative value system, whether you want it or not. The point is that you are different. So, many of my generation upwards believe that those who are under 20 years old can perhaps be a little freer, a little more open and a little less homophobic or transphobic. But my generation — 35 years or older — was raised saying ‘you can’t dress like that, you can’t act that way.’ If you were already gay, in some way it conditioned you that you had to be a type of gay that fit into society,” he argues.
The documentary filmmaker understands that his generation has had to deconstruct the issue of prejudice that came with previous generations. He states that, overall, it is “very painful” because, unfortunately, in the same community LGBTI There are “homophobes and transphobes” who are reluctant toward drag “because they are everything they have been told they should not be: scandalous and flashy.”
“I feel that sometimes our generation is celebrated for going unnoticed, so that we are not attacked, so that we are not violated. In a country where there is no legislation LGBTI, it’s easier to survive that way, but it’s not the right way. We need to fight for something. This is what makes a large part of the community so self-discriminating,” he adds.
He recalls that when he studied at a Catholic school, he was told that being gay was wrong, just as wearing tattoos or painting his nails was not what a man of God should do. Many hesitate to undergo conversion therapy because “they have been told that the only way to be saved is to cure this, and they agree to follow that path.”
“The second phase for those who overcome the first stage of denial is perhaps to accept themselves, but without showing it openly. They think: ‘What am I going to do being gay? I realize that I can’t change this about myself, but I’m going to stick with it. I’m going to dress like a man, especially in the case of older people, which is worse, because they even plan to have a girlfriend, get married, have children to camouflage themselves socially until they reach 50 or 60 years old when they can finally accept themselves, get divorced and start living as they really always wanted, but what society didn’t allow them before,” he explains.
When Castro Antezama elaborated Lima is burning He didn’t want to stay in sadness or drama. Although there are hard things that happen during the documentary – the death of Stacy Malibu or rude things being shouted at Tany de la Riva – the director’s idea was not to stay with that vision.
“Much of the narratives LGBTI Throughout history, they have been tragic. And this has a lot to do with the fact that most LGBTI stories have been told by heterosexual people. Sure, some of these people may be allies with good intentions, but they clearly see the community as poor people, because we are obviously vulnerable people who have fewer rights. So, their stories start from that point of view. But I think that the same community does not see itself as poor people. Our vision of the world is different,” she explains.
The director wanted to reflect that, despite living in a conservative country, drag queens dance, celebrate and continue to survive. For this reason, Lima is burningends with a unique party, synonymous with a “colorful protest.”
“It’s funny how, sometimes, we forget that the Pride March It is a protest, but a very happy protest. You can compare it to union or other types of marches. The marches against governments are a little more serious, more formal, but the pride marches They are parties. It is like the way the community has known how to defend itself and face challenges,” she complements.
