Outside in: Inter-cultural collaborations for community health among gay men

In 2006, white and Latino health advocates in San Francisco's gay community began collaborating on a community-participatory film project exploring ways that gay Latino immigrants cope with multi-fold oppression. The community's struggles were well known: racism, homophobia, historic health disparities, etc. The project organizers envisioned something more than just recounting the troubles of an oppressed community. They saw in the project an opportunity, through Inter-Cultural Collaboration, to be a catalyst for empowerment. Working together across cultural fault lines of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender, the organizers viewed the process of making the film as important as the film itself. It was a process in which to explore the meaning of being an outside and an insider. A process in which each was learner and teacher. And a process in which the centrality of the target population's role in defining the issues and articulating the message was paramount. The result was more than just a film, but a space for gay Latino immigrants to debate critical community concerns, to enhance individual social support networks, and to build new skills related to filmmaking and media advocacy. It also created opportunities for all to engage in an important process of inter-cultural collaboration, where some were called to confront their privilege and others were able to more fully actualize their power and agency in the broader community. Throughout the project, an emphasis was placed on having a community-inclusive process that drew attention to opportunities for bridge-building and creating meaningful intercultural alliances.