When it comes to dealing with issues of sexual identity, cinema seems to be one of the spaces in which these identities are constructed with more intensity. Among the sections of the Festival do Rio, I found Gay World, an eclectic gathering of 12 feature films and documentaries from all around the globe.

What do these 12 productions really have in common? At first glance, the answer seems natural: they have gay themes. However, today the question is tricky and a natural response is, perhaps, inadequate. It’s necessary to question the pertinence of talking about the gay "world", which tends to ghetto-ize it: in order to build identity is it necessary to raise (more) borders?

In a brief tour of this section, I watched two radically different films: To Die Like a Man by João Pedro Rodrigues and An Englishman in New York by Richard Laxton. The difference between them lies in the way the main characters are portrayed: on one hand, a non-idealistic film about a full-time lover, father, and drag queen; on the other hand, the naïve idealization of a once-interesting gay gentleman. However, both films ask the same question: why do we set boundaries?

The truth is that discrimination has not disappeared. In that sense, to explore this festival section is a real challenge and a tough question mark: it is possible to speak of truly diverse, democratic societies? You do the math.

Mary Carmen Molina Ergueta