This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat. The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to ...
The film begins with Ahmed who is from Hydrabad in Southern India. He talks about coming out to his family and how it was a disaster and explains that there is no word in Urdu that he could use to the family members who do not speak English. Paula then talks to a woman with Nigerian roots about her realisation that she was a lesbian. The next interviewee has Kenyan Hindu heritage who had to stay in closet after his father's death otherwise his sister could have problems finding a partner. He is followed by a man with Pakistani Muslim background that Paula talks to on the South Bank. He describes his coming out which was aided by the Gay Ice Breakers group. Next we hear from Isaac Julien who is a student at St Martin’s School of Art whose family were originally from St Lucia. We then return to Ahmed who is interviewed at home with his partner Alan about their cultural experiences. Soon, the discussion turns to racial fetishism in the “gay scene”. Another interviewee describes the two types of people he has been confronted with in white gay spaces. One, he explains, “just want you for sex, and the other sort don’t want to know you at all”.
Cultural difference and how it impacts one’s ability to live openly is an overarching theme. For a lot of these people “family is more important than sexuality”. The topics discussed, such as fetishisation, intersectionality and representation, are topics that the LGBT+ community continue to grapple with. By engaging with our history and listening to people’s unique life experiences, we will be better equipped to face present-day challenges. Interestingly, the title is a bit misleading since a lot of focus is actually on Asian/India folks rather than black, but I guess the idea was to show the issues faced by non-white people. This film offers us a rare insight into the historic experiences of Black LGBT+ people in Britain. If you didn't know when this film was made, you would think it was done now, since most of these things are still quite relevant. (6/10)
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