The decade-long story of a queer artist-activist from Uganda transforming discarded rubbish into visions of liberation.
SYNOPSIS
Rubbish: The Queer Kingdom of Leilah Babirye tells the story of a queer artist-activist from Uganda transforming discarded rubbish into visions of liberation. Outed in homophobic media amidst a climate of rising hateful legislation, she applied for asylum in New York City and began building the liberatory queer kingdom of her dreams.
A 10-year film about one extraordinary artist’s work to reimagine life for the queer diaspora based on compassion, beauty and celebration. From underground pride parties in Kampala to the drag shows of Fire Island to her own Bushwick studio, this film follows her building online community and constructing incredible totemic sculpture work, shown in some of the most celebrated spaces of the international art world.
Called “triumphal” and “luminous” by Roberta Smith in the New York Times, Leilah’s work tells the story of kuchu, or queer, life in Uganda. The film’s title references ebisiyaga, the Luganda word for sugarcane husk, or rubbish, used to pejoratively describe kuchu people. As an artist working with found materials, Leilah transforms the objects humans discard into otherworldly figures, centering and honoring queer ancestors, past and imagined.
Director Statement
When Leilah and I met in 2012, I knew early on that she was building something extraordinary with her work, something that would inspire the world. Leilah’s personal vision and her incredible sculptures are my immediate inspiration — they transform the discards of society into beautiful and powerful objects, and in seeing her life and work come together I’ve been inspired as a queer person and creative. We have a decade-long friendship built from rooting for each other and pulling each other upwards.
I am greatly encouraged by the worldwide queer community today fighting the global wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. As Leilah recently was quoted saying: “No turning back! We shall fight with all we have.”
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Director AX Mina
A 2024 Sundance Trans Possibilities Intensive Fellow, AX Mina has led exhibitions in spaces such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Mozilla Festival Open Artist Studio (curated by the V&A Museum and Tate Modern), and the Museum of the Moving Image, and she produces Five and Nine, a podcast about magic, work and economic justice.
She’s written about art, culture and global politics for over a decade, with work in Hyperallergic, Places Journal, the Atlantic, the New York Times, and Foreign Policy. Her second book, Hanmoji Handbook, co-authored with Jason Li and Jennifer 8. Lee, is a Kirkus Best Book of 2022 and teaches the Chinese language through emoji.
She is a Senior Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg School for Journalism and Communications and member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia and the Asian American Documentary Network. She served as associate producer on the award-winning documentary Ascension, directed by Jessica Kingdon, and co-director of the Lijiang Creative City Guide, produced by China Residencies with support from the British Council China.
Producer Kira Simon-Kennedy
Kira Simon-Kennedy (Producer) is the co-founder & co-director of China Residencies/爻 yáo collaborative, a multifaceted arts nonprofit supporting hundreds of different international creative exchanges since its inception in 2013. Kira is also an Academy Award nominated documentary film producer, currently producing feature documentary projects by Yeelen Cohen (Lights of Passage), Jiayu Yang (The Entomologists), Shelley Cheung (Laying The Last Track), Morehshin Allahyari (The Remaining Signs of Future Centuries), and Mia Bendrimia (Magma). Through all of her work, she is committed to redistributing resources and mentoring the next generation of artists, cultural workers & organizers.
Flor de oro Tejada (Producer) is a multidisciplinary filmmaker and creative producer based in the Bronx, New York. Flor’s films explore Black, Indigenous, Latine and LGBTQIA+ communities through futurism and healing. She’s produced branded content and creative non-fiction shorts for clients including Condé Nast, AT&T, Amazon Web Services, Comcast, Time Inc., Tribeca Studios, P&G and many more. Flor graduated from the Kanbar Institute of Film & Television school at New York University Tisch School of the Arts and her films have appeared in AFI FEST, Allied Media Conference, Camden International Film Festival, Seattle Trans Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Martha's Vineyard African-American Film Festival, Afrikana Independent Film Festival, Odù Film Festival Brazil and more. Her latest film Bone Black: Midwives vs. the South won the Best Short Documentary award at Blackstar Film Festival and New Orleans Film Festival in 2023. Flor is a Fellow to the 2023-2024 Sundance Documentary Producers Lab and Fellowship with her latest documentary feature, Wild Darlings Sing the Blues (And It’s a Song of Freedom.)
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