Babylonia

周六的夜晚，灯光闪耀在古伊拉空旷的街道上。今晚，终于有好戏上演：巴比伦酒馆——古巴阿尔特米萨区域最大的变装秀，音乐的空中花园，神圣的派对文明！这是伊丽莎白第一次登上她梦寐以求的舞台，但在幕布之后，她会发现，舞台上的光芒四射并没有她想象得那么简单…… 

Saturday night. A light shines on the deserted streets of Güira. Tonight, finally, there is something to do: Babylonia! The biggest drag show in Artemisa, a musical hanging garden, a divine partying civilization! Tonight is also Elizabeth’s debut on the stage she has always dreamed of. Behind the curtain, however, she will find that shining isn’t as easy as she imagined.. 

导演：杜达·冈博吉
编剧：杜达·冈博吉
主演：伊丽莎白·德·维多利亚、法蒂玛·德·维多利亚、玛丽亚·伊莎贝拉、莫妮卡、维纳斯·德·克里斯塔尔、扎伊德
制片人：马修斯·莫拉
摄影：伊萨克·罗德里格斯、路易萨·卡拉吉安
类型：纪录剧情短片
对白语言：西班牙语
制作机构：Ursana Filmes

Director: Duda Gambogi
Screenwriter: Duda Gambogi
Cast: Elizabeth de Victoria, Fatima de Victoria, María Isabella, Mónica, Venus de Cristal, Zaid
Producer: Matheus Moura
Cinematographer: Isaac Rodríguez, Luiza Calagian
Genre: Documentary Narrative Short Film
Language: Spanish
Production Company: Ursana Filmes

杜达·冈博吉是一位视听艺术家，在古巴圣安东尼奥·德·洛斯·巴尼奥斯国际电影与电视学校获得纪录片硕士学位。她的作品曾在90多个电影节上展出，并荣获多个奖项。她的首部电影《Endless Love》被《Kinoscope》杂志评选为2020年最佳短片之一。目前，她负责协调玛丽埃塔文化中心的纪录片工作组，并作为策展人和影评人开展活动。 

Duda Gambogi is an audiovisual artist and holds a Master’s degree in Documentary Film from EICTV (Cuba). Her works have been showcased in over 90 festivals, winning various awards, and her first film, Endless Love, was chosen as one of the best short films of 2020 by Kinoscope magazine. Currently, Duda coordinates the Documentary Development Group at the Marieta Cultural Center and also works as a curator and film critic. 

《巴比伦酒馆》是在圣安东尼奥·德·洛斯·巴尼奥斯国际电影与电视学校（EICTV）拍摄的。这所学校在古巴一个乡下小城镇附近的农场里。 

虽然这种与世隔绝确实有助于我们投入自己的电影项目，但有时休闲活动的匮乏会让人难以忍受。你应该能想象到，当我们听说附近会有一场变装秀表演的时候，我们有多兴奋。 

穿过荒凉街道上的一扇小门，我们到了巴比伦酒馆。在那里，我们仿佛置身于另一个世界，与过去所习惯的压抑而拘谨的古巴社会（尽管我对古巴很有好感）截然不同。在这里，酷儿们的衣着、举止、调情，都展现着一种令人震惊的、在这里之外从未见过的自由。 

这个精彩的宇宙实在震撼了我们，尤其是在一个性别歧视和恐同根深蒂固的社会——直到60年代末，LGBT群体还被关押在强制劳动营里。然而，古巴的变装皇后们不仅抵抗着黑暗的时代，还在其间蓬勃发展。因为她们光芒四射，懂得如何撑起一场精彩的表演。她们不仅生存了下来，甚至还比大部分人更富有，因为她们实在是太擅长这样的工作了。 

在巴比伦酒馆的数个夜晚中，有一次长达三个小时的停电。令人惊讶的是，没有人离开，而且简直是我们在那里看到过的最精彩的一次演出，演员和观众都以最大的热情投入到表演中。 

在那天晚上，我们播下了这部电影的种子（并以朗姆酒浇灌）。对我来说，那个夜晚展现了transformistas（变装皇后们）的“萤火般的抵抗”：不管是遭遇停电，还是历史对她们的抹杀，她们都依然闪耀着光芒。这场戏剧性事件点燃了演出，也启发了我们的剧本和演员们的表演。饰演她们自己，这件事她们太擅长了。 

“Babylonia was made within the EICTV (International School of Cinema and Television of San Antonio de Los Baños). The school is located in a farm in the surroundings of a tiny city in the countryside of Cuba. 

While the isolation really helped us to plunge into our film projects, the lack of leisure options could be very hard to handle at times. You can imagine our excitement when we heard there was a drag show nearby. 

A tiny door in a deserted street led us to Babilonia, and being there felt like being in a whole other world, very different from the repressive and restrained society (despite all of the Cuban sympathy) we were used to. Here, queer people dressed and acted and flirted with an astounding and unseen liberty in the outside world. 

This fabulous universe really blew our minds, especially in the context of a society so deeply sexist and homophobic that it had forced labor camps for LGBT people up until the end of the 60s. Cuban drag queens, however, have managed not only to resist but to thrive through the dark ages, because they glow and know how to put on a show. They remain alive and well and even wealthier than most because they’re just too good at what they do. 

In one of our many Babylonian nights at Babylonia, there was a power outage that lasted nothing less than three hours. Amazingly, nobody left, and it was the best show we ever saw there, with the artists and the public performing with maximum levels of energy. 

The seed of our film was planted (and watered with rum) on that night, which, for me, was a live example of the‘firefly resistance’ of the transformistas (drag queens) that remain shining through any power outage or attempt of erasure throughout history. The melodrama that inspires the show also inspired our script and the performances of our actresses, who play themselves because they are just too good at doing that.