GLITCH Film Festival Check It

“In my life, to be a gay person waking up everyday, it’s a survival thing.”

Check It captures the panache and peril of life in a gay gang. The inescapable backdrop is the ravages of poverty that poor black communities undergo in the US. As vulnerable gay and transgender youth they’ve been abandoned, stabbed, shot and raped. In 2009 some young bullied queer 14 year olds had had enough and started Check It to push back – now they number 200 strong. Taking the words fierce and fabulous to the max they are an unruly, loving, flaming family to each other. Often finding themselves on the wrong side of the law, as a gang they have exacted violent retaliation to the point of leaving some enemies in comas.

Into this world some compassionate older black men try to turn things around for them - with the urgent clarity that if they don’t, young peoples' lives are likely to be cut short.

Dirs. Dana Flor & Toby Oppenheimer | 91mins | USA | 2016 | Screening with English subtitles

This film is F-rated. Films are given an F-rating if directed by women, written by women and/or present significant female characters on screen, in their own right. f-rated.org.