SOMOS: Celebrando neustras experiencias como gay inmigrantes, a community participatory documentary film project

In 2006, Latino and white health advocates in San Francisco's gay community began collaborating on a community-participatory documentary film project exploring ways that gay Latino immigrants cope with multi-fold oppression. The struggles were well known: racism, homophobia, health disparities, etc. The project organizers, however, envisioned something more than just cataloguing community challenges. They saw an opportunity to be a catalyst for empowerment through community participation and Inter-Cultural Collaboration. Working across lines of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, the organizers made the process of filmmaking as important as the film itself. The project created opportunities to explore the meaning of being an outside and an insider. It was 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 not 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 dialogue, where some were called to confront their privilege and struggle with the question of how to be a responsible ally, 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 an inclusive process that drew attention to opportunities for bridge-building and creating meaningful inter-cultural alliances.