'The Abominable Crime' Wins Best Documentary at LGBTQ Film Festival

This weekend, the Pulitzer Center-produced documentary "The Abominable Crime" won Best Documentary Feature at the fourth annual OUT at the Movies International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The film, directed by Micah Fink, is about the persecution of LGBTQ people in Jamaica. It follows the lives of Simone and Maurice, who are forced to choose between leaving their homes to start news lives abroad, or staying and risking death. Filmed in five countries, the documentary provides a powerful look into the struggles Jamaican LGBTQ people face in their daily lives.

"Jamaica's 1864 anti-sodomy law bans all forms of same-sex intimacy between men (lesbians are not criminalized) even holding hands in the privacy of a bedroom… in 2012 the Jamaican Constitution was amended to ban any form of non-heterosexual relationships, even common-law unions between lesbians or gays are now banned."

The film was one of 18 shown at the OUT at the Movies International Film Festival, which ran from October 5-8 at venues throughout Winston-Salem. The festival highlights pieces centered around LGBTQ experiences, ranging from comedies to documentary pieces like "The Abominable Crime." Filmmakers, actors, and documentary subjects also engaged with audiences in panel discussions throughout the event, which is organized by Rex Welton as a part of the larger OUT at the Movies film series.

"The Abominable Crime" has won a number of other awards, including the Amnesty International Human Rights Prize at Trinidad+Tobago Film Festival, Best Documentary at the Belize International Film Festival, and Audience Awards at the Rose Filmdagen LGBT Film Festival and Mix Copenhagen.