What do they have in common with the Reggaeton and Normative Heterosexuality? We talk about this in the new video This does not sell, we made for the Desmuntatòpics 2017 project with El Consell de Nois i Noies de L’Hospitalet. Raquel Rey, activist and documentary filmmaker with a gender perspective, is now in charge of the audiovisual area of elParlante. We talked to her to find out the most interesting aspects of this new edition. No spoilers!
The topic.- The group decided that, before working with us, we had to do a brainstorming
to choose the topics we wanted to discuss. This is how the idea of dismantling gender stereotypes arose, an issue that appears increasingly strongly among groups of young people in the neighborhoods and areas where we usually work. In this case, the objective was clear from the first workshop: his idea was to dismantle the discourse on “the presumption of heterosexuality” in today’s society. For Raquel this was the ideal setting to share her experience and knowledge about the stereotypes that she herself deals with in her documentary stories. As is usually the case, they found that beyond theory and media debate, “they were more interested in the story they wanted to tell.”
Music.- When, together, they decided that the plot should be developed within a heteronormative universe Some debates were generated around the heteropatriarchal system, based on the “objectification” of women’s bodies and the reinforcement of masculinity. Part of the group believed that Reggaeton was the ideal context, since the imaginary of reggeatonero is that of a young, handsome and heterosexual man surrounded by many girls. The idea of the short film was precisely this, “to break the stereotypes and taboos that exist about Latin music”, although in the same group there were some people who claimed that Reggaeton is “neuron-killing” music. These projects make us think and analyze what our work as educators is when we detect certain attitudes in the group when making important decisions in the project. It is we who must ensure that any debate enriches the process rather than ruins it.
Protagonists.- When the time came to choose who would be
the
Protagonists of the short, new debates arose, since one of the scenes proposed by the group was a kiss of release at the end of the short. “At that moment,” explains Raquel, “something interesting happened: while the girls didn’t mind kissing each other, the boys were uncomfortable.” Narrative decisions had to be made at the time and the approach was whether it was essential to kiss at the end to make the plot understandable. The answer was clear, it wasn’t necessary. From the beginning it had been proposed that the protagonists were two boys and a girl reggeatoneros And so the casting was done. “The competition was tough,” Rachel recalls, “because the whole group voted for who they thought would do best. There was a pretty tricky time because the role of the protagonist was 50/50 between two girls.” But, the result was put to a new vote, so with the casting finished, all that remained was to embark on the adventure of recording.
We know that with five sessions and a short one, the impact on the group is not very great for a matter of time, but we are sure that they will ruminate on the topics discussed. In the end, we are all traversed by a heteronormative system that harasses dissent, and breaking with the norm is nothing more than trying to change the world, as Raquel says, even with a short film, such as “This does not sell”.
Remember, you can watch all our videos and receive notifications of premieres by subscribing to our
elParlante YouTube channel
.