Queer Strategies and Tentacles: Gentrification
Gesu è morto per i peccati degli altri
Maria Arena
2014
90 Minutes
Date
February 3–February 16, 2025
“In Catania, San Berillo is the neighborhood of whores, where a handful of narrow run-down streets in the heart of the city that have been neglected for over fifty years are today disputed over by conflicting interests. Franchina, Meri, Alessia, Marcella, Santo, Totino, and Wonder are transgenders that have prostituted themselves in San Berillo for decades, but now they risk finding themselves without a roof under which to work and ending up under an overpass along the Catania-Gela highway, instead. “Le belle di San Berillo” tells, by way of candid conversation on those narrow streets, their daily life in and out of the neighborhood. Theirs are universal stories, stories of individuals on the margins of society endowed with an irreverent and pure irony. Behind every laugh there is truth, a truth that urges its audience to reflect on reality. Without shame, the whores of San Berillo speak openly about their activities, seek rights for the profession they practice, and display the intimacy of their families and their solitude in front of the door waiting for clients. Dreams and fears, desolation and happiness, transgression and prayer, jealousy and compassion are some of the varied emotions contained in San Berillo that this documentary seeks to convey to its viewers.” - Maria Arena
This screening is part of Gentrification, the seventh chapter of the film program Queer Strategies and Tentacles, curated by Rosa Barotsi and Zairong Xiang, and unfolding in eight chapters between November 25th, 2024 and March 2, 2025, with the films of each chapter streaming for two weeks.
For more information, contact program@e-flux.com.