April 1: Waiting for B. (2015 – Paulo Cesar Toledo & Abigail Spindel)

★★★★

As it starts, Waiting for B. shows us a group of enthusiastic Beyoncé fans in Brazil starting to line up at the stadium two months before her concert.  Young, animated and mostly gay, they want to be first in line when the stadium opens.  In fan mode, they dress like Beyoncé and dance in sidewalk imitation of her choreography; one group of friends even does Beyoncé imitation performances at a Sao Paolo gay bar.   They joke, tease, and vamp Beyoncé.  

But even as we enjoy the irreverence and enthusiasm of the group, we begin to see that the posing, glitz and energy is a contrast to the daily living conditions of these kids.  Paulo Cesar Toledo & Abigail Spindel take us into the intimacy of the waiting kids’ tents, where we eavesdrop on conversations about issues that concern them like race and discrimination, discussions that Beyoncé’s public image naturally invites but that has particular resonance in Brazil's poor, mixed-raced population.  We also hear about the kids' insecurities and vulnerabilities like dating and relations with their families.  And the film takes us along with some of them beyond their waiting to see their modest homes, their terse interactions with their families and their daily grind of public transportation and work.  They are part of the poor youth of Sao Paulo, and we see that Beyoncé fandom gives them not only a way to express a sexuality they generally suppress but also a way to think of a world outside the one they live in most of the time.

Other scenes show us an even darker aspect of their lives.  An occasional car goes by that shouts an anti-gay epithet, but the waiting fans quickly close ranks and respond in kind, secure in their group.  During a soccer match at the stadium a couple of weeks before the concert, however, they’re massively outnumbered, and Toledo and Spindel capture their wide, alert eyes as they hunker down out of sight of the soccer attendees.  Even on the level of imagery, we sense the menace the Beyoncé fans feel in the middle of the mass of macho soccer fans.  In contrast to the youth, delicacy, play and agility we see waiting for the concert, the soccer fans are older, stockier, louder, and aggressive, particularly since many were drinking.  The sequence with the soccer fans powerfully implies the danger the kids live in only because of their sexuality.

Waiting for B. starts as film about Beyoncé fans but gradually morphs into a description of the social environment that poor, out, gay youth faces in Brazil.  It leaves us simultaneously celebrating the energy and confidence of the kids but also concerned about their vulnerability in a society that largely doesn’t want them.  Few documentaries evoke such a range of emotions simultaneously.

Atlanta Film Festival: Friday March 31, 9:30 pm at the Plaza Theater.