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In response to CHROMA, Paul Rowley award-winning film maker and activist based in NYC, presents a screening and discussion of his ongoing film collaboration with Gays Against Guns (GAG). GAG is a NYC based activist group, formed in the aftermath of the Pulse Orlando nightclub massacre in June 2016. The GAG group brings together LGBTQ+ activist veterans of the AIDS crisis who devise strategies for direct-action and civil disobedience, to end the epidemic gun violence in the United States.
Rowley’s screening sheds light on the agency of queer activism today, a legacy that finds solidarity with the civil rights of other marginalised communities who now are finding themselves targeted anew in a present-day America, rife with alt-right groups and assertions of racist, transphobic and homophobic politics.
GAYS AGAINST GUNS is presented in collaboration with Niall Sweeney and the installation Club Chroma commissioned for the Project Spaces, showing until 29 March 2020.
Screening Loop
Tuesday 10 March – Sunday 29 March, Project Spaces
This screening loop includes an excerpt from Rowley’s GAG documentary that gives insight into the social, political and personal motivations of individual GAG members, who reflect on how their experiences of the AIDS crisis and ACT UP inform their present day activist work in combatting gun violence.
A second video introduces GAG’s peaceful protest series of the Human Beings. Central to GAG’s practice, these performances comprise of powerful collective gatherings by GAG members in public situations from streets to government offices. GAG members dress in white and remain silent and veiled while they carry photos of victims of gun violence, holding space for lives lost while confronting passers-by with these profound reminders of the human cost of the epidemic. The group target the financial institutions, gun manufactures and politicians that benefit from supporting the National Rifle Association (NRA), while drawing connections between the communities most impacted; women, people of colour, LGBTQ+ people, and those suffering from mental illness.
Screening Details
Paul Rowley
Gays Against Guns (Excerpt from feature documentary) 5 mins, colour, sound.
A Still Films production in association with Screen Ireland.
Human Beings (GAG protest, performance) 7 mins, colour, sound.
Featuring interviews with selected GAG members and Human Beings silent protest performances by the GAG group. Sound composition by Oberman Knocks.
Niall Sweeney
Club Chroma, 25mins, colour, silent.
Featuring imagery sourced from Alternative Miss Ireland (1987–2012) and Powderbubble (1996–1997) collective studio archives. AMI was instrumental in developing a variety of HIV/AIDS related programmes across Ireland.