Filmmaker and director Sandulela Asanda said South African television and film now show more complex LGBTQ+ characters. The change has come over about the past five years, Asanda said in a report by Bona.
Asanda said the change is still slow. Queer characters are often still written as the joker or the effeminate gay man, and queer women get very little representation, Asanda said.
“In the past, at least like five years, we are seeing a lot more complex characters coming to the fore,” Asanda said.
Asanda added that the old patterns have not gone away. “I still seeing kind of like the queer person as like the jokester, always like the effeminate gay man,” Asanda said.
Asanda still sees progress. “Slowly but surely, I think it’s happening,” the filmmaker said.
Asanda said much of the change comes from the people now writing the stories. According to Asanda, more writers in these rooms are openly queer and want to tell stories with more layers.
“I think it also has to do with the people who are now occupying the rooms as writers, who are interested in seeing these more complex stories, who are more openly queer and are willing to fight for storylines that represent the diversity of their experiences and the things that are seen on screen,” Asanda said.
Asanda also spoke about who is putting these stories on screen. Streaming platforms and some filmmakers are leading the way, Asanda said. This is especially true for LGBTQ+ stories that go beyond themes of struggle.
Local programmers and commissioners can be more careful, Asanda said. Bona reported that their concerns include audience demographics and how some viewers may see the content as controversial.
International streaming has changed this for some creators, according to Bona. Global platforms are more open to different stories. Bona reported that this allows independent South African filmmakers to take bigger creative risks.
Bona also looked back at how local screens treated LGBTQ+ people in earlier years. For decades, these characters were often kept to narrow roles, the publication said. Many were written as the joker or the flamboyant gay man.
Those simple roles left out the real experiences of LGBTQ+ women, according to the report.
Asanda said that as these stories spread and reach more viewers, they slowly bring mainstream local audiences into the same conversation.
Source: this article is based on reporting by Bona. Image: Bona. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Entertainment desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Rirhandzu Baloyi writes about entertainment for Tzaneen Voice. Rirhandzu covers South African music, film, TV, streaming, awards and celebrity news, from amapiano and local soapies to Showmax and Netflix releases. Stories stick to what happened, who was involved and when fans can watch or listen.