Queer Britain (UK) (Documentary)

I cant remember the last time I had so much fun watching a documentary. And the entire credit for this goes to the very charming, charismatic and extremely handsome Riyadh Khalaf. He is a famous YouTuber (I am embarrassed to say that I had never heard of him before) and the way he talks , interacts and interviews people is so normal everyday types and never once you feel he is putting up an act for camera and thats why he stays himself and the other characters stay true to their self.

Riyadh (Iraqi/Irish descent) addresses a lot of issues wrt LGBTQ+ community in this six-part BBC3 series. Riyadh address many subjects in these episodes, right from religion & sexuality, discrimination & body shaming, how every 1 out of 4 people that are homeless are from LGBTQ community, what ethnic racism is like in Britain, pornography and finally the queer in LGBTQ+. In every episode we meet a few main subjects and hear their stories of that topic that we are learning about. Most of these things are not new to me, given I am 'ethnic", not have the 6 pack body, immigrant etc, I was able to relate but even to me some of the things shown was shocking. I was surprised to hear that ration of LGBTQ folks in overall homeless folks and hearing some of the stories of people who were thrown off their homes was very disturbing.

This documentary is interesting because Riyadh also tries to find something personal in each of these 6 segments: right from shooting a porn film, to doing a nude photo shoot and talking to the people as if he has known them for ages. The easy charm and connect he makes with people is unmissable and thats what I believe makes people open up to him. As an audience we are in awe of his charisma and yet shocked, surprised and even horrified at some of the stories you get to hear. We think times have changed and things would be different for LGBTQ community in a first world country like UK, but we have miles to walk. Its almost impossible to imagine how hard the life is probably for other countries if this is what can still happen in Britain.

This is absolutely a must watch documentary, for more reasons that just one. (7/10)

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