CHEF!
Camerun, France 1999 | 61 Min. | 16 mm, OmeU
WOUBI CHÉRI is a documentary that looks at gay life in contemporary Africa. The film takes place in the Ivory Coast and features a range of characters from Vincent, a traditional African storyteller and shaman, to Barbara, the vivacious President of the local Transvestite Association. We travel from modern Abidjan, the capital of the Ivory Coast, to small towns in the more traditional countryside. In WOUBI CHÉRI, we examine crucial political questions raised today as gays in the Ivory Coast are torn between an old time silent acceptance and their own desire for more open recognition.
In this film different people from the gay scene of the Ivory Coast will tell their own stories, bringing a new sense of gay and lesbian life as it has never been seen before – its humor, emotions, politics and traditions, its pleasure and pain. Our characters take us on an exploration of their cultural and sexual identities, leading us into their world as they see and experience it.
Here the parameters are different to those in the Western world, and the experiences of homosexual Africans change the notion of what is ‚gay’ and what is ‚straight’ for those in the West as well.