In the last few years it’s seemed like the world of filmmaking has been opening up to everyone. No longer do you need money and equipment to buy and develop film, then manually edit and do all the other relatively expensive things it used to entail. Now most people wander around with cameras in their pockets – under the guise of smartphones – that offer a picture quality that would have exceeded what even a semi-professional videographer could have managed just 20 years ago.
However there are still limitations, not least that in different parts of the world certain subjects are still completely taboo and may even be criminal. You may be wondering why I’m talking about all this. Well, Haram Queen is the first (as far as it’s possible to tell) LGBT-themed film to emanate from the Bornean nation of Brunei, something that’s only possible due to the democratisation of filmmaking. [Read more…]