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I am Samuel

I am Samuel is a 2020 Kenyan LGBTQ documentary film written by Ricardo Acosta, produced by We are not the Machine, directed by Pete Murimi and starring Samuel Asilikwa.

The 52-minute documentary, filmed vérité style over five years, presents an intimate picture of love, family, and affirmation in the lives of LGBTQ Kenyans. I am Samuel is a story about love, family and acceptance – the story of a Kenyan man torn between balancing duty to his family with his dreams for his future. According to the film’s director, Murimi, I am Samuel “tells the story of Samuel, who lives and works in Nairobi, his partner, Alex, as well as his relationship with his parents, traditional farmers who are keen for him to get married and settle down.”

Synopsis

Samuel grew up in the Kenyan countryside, where tradition is valued above all else. He is close to his family, but his father, a local pastor, doesn’t understand why he isn’t married yet. After moving to Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, in search of work and a new life, Samuel falls in love with Alex and finds community and belonging. Their love thrives despite the fact that Kenyan laws criminalize anyone who identifies as LGBTQ+. Despite threats of violence and rejection, Samuel and Alex move between their parallel worlds, hoping to win acceptance in both. At the core of this documentary is a love story of two men, Samuel and Alex, who are deeply committed to each other.

Samuel’s father, Redon, a retired painter who has been married to his wife Rebecca for 50 years, was desperate for his son to marry a woman and live the same kind of life as him - as a farmer, pastor, husband and father. He is not just a pastor at the local church but he is a small-scale farmer in rural Kenya. Every season, the couple plough their two-acre farm and plant maize and beans to eat at home. They also keep two cows for milk. Redon, being deeply religious, struggles to cope with the discovery that his son is gay and the film follows the family as they adjust to this difficult new reality.  

Premiere

The film premiered at Canada’s Hot Docs International Documentary Festival in 2020, and was screened across over 25 festivals around the world, including New York’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival, and the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa.

Reception

Despite much anticipation from Kenyan queer audiences, the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) banned all screenings of the film in Kenya, only weeks before the film’s premiere.

I am Samuel was well received, gaining positive reviews from Tangaza Magazine, Rotten Tomatoes, The Guardian, IMDB. For Tangaza, Grey Oletsa wrote, “in the face of baseless censorship, the documentary desperately provides audiences with queer representation to achieve the director’s hopes of subverting the systematic oppression of queer Kenyans.”

Ban in Kenya

On the 23rd September 2021, the KFCB geo-banned I am Samuel, blocking viewership from Kenyan audiences. While addressing the media during a press conference, the Board’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Christopher Wambua observed that the film blatantly violates Article 165 of the Penal Code that outlaws homosexuality as well as the provisions of the Films and Stage Plays Act Cap 222 of the laws of Kenya. The CEO alleged that the film “tries to influence the viewer into believing that the older generation that was once against LGBTQ+ is slowly buying into the practice and accepting same sex marriage as a normal way of life.”

The film’s director Pete Murimi and his producer said that they intend to appeal the decision. In an interview with The Advocate, a US-based magazine, Murimi said: “This is a divisive issue — not everybody’s in the same place.” Murimi also stated that the KFCB is “treating some Kenyans as equal, like some are more equal than others, and that is wrong.”

Distribution

In a Twitter thread, the I am Samuel production team announced that the film would be available for streaming across the African continent through an online, South Africa-based documentary platform, Afri Docs. However, in compliance with the ban by the Kenyan Film and Classification Board, the documentary has been geo-blocked in Kenya. I Am Samuel is distributed by Bohemia Media and is available for streaming in the US and UK on Apple iTunes and YouTube Movies.