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Anhell69 2022

Recommended

Distributed by Grasshopper Film, 12 East 32nd St., 4th Floor, New York, NY 10016
Produced by Bianca Oana, David Hurst, Theo Montoya, and Juan Pablo Castrillón
Directed by Theo Montoya
Streaming, 75 mins



General Adult
Drugs; Experimental Film; LGBTQIA+

Date Entered: 05/08/2024

Reviewed by Johnnie N. Gray, Technology Services Librarian, Christopher Newport University

Colombian filmmaker, Theo Montoya, creates an experimental film – part documentary, part movie, to show how life hasn’t changed since the 2016 peace agreement in Medellin. He and his friends are described as a no-future generation, and that this is a film to be without “borders or genders.” It features a circle of friends of Montoya’s that are a sample of the queer underworld in Medellin. These friends die in a war of drugs and suicide. Footage of the group of friends are woven with a movie that doesn’t exist on its own. Even the main actor, dies of an overdose within a week. This movie within Anhell69 is a movie about “spectrophillacs” who are Montoya’s friends, and will portray club kids that seek out phantoms to have sex with. Both the making of the movie and the interviews co-mingle the problems of queer youth in the city. The film features hypnotic flashing inside of clubs, archival news footage of protests against the right-wing government, as well as some explicit scenes of sex and nudity. Montoya does not shy away nor censor anything relevant to his vision, which is a solid statement about the "no-future generation" in Medellin.

Beautifully shot with a sharp eye for relevant b-roll that adds to the film. Editing is well done, and the narrative is not confusing to the viewer. It is an excellent film for queer studies for South America and Colombia. The intended audience is adults. It makes for a great watch, especially in seeing real depictions of queer society in other countries.

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