About the Documentary
The Story
Golf Alpha Yankee is an audacious vérité documentary that turns the refugee narrative on its head.
The story follows five gay refugees from Iran, waiting in limbo in Turkey, longing for resettlement in the United States or Canada. They forge an unlikely friendship with Rick, a naive American director, eventually welcoming him and his camera into their homes.
Rejecting tropes of victimization, they navigate the stubborn director away from his preconceptions, gradually guiding him to represent them as they see themselves. The collaboration results in an honest, hilarious, gloriously obscene story. Through unvarnished intimacy and refreshing humor, Golf Alpha Yankee builds a bridge between worlds, guiding the viewers to recognize these exiles as friends.
A New Kind of Animation
To ensure the safety of everyone involved, Rick would never capture any faces with his lens. The film uses body language, intricate sound design, and groundbreaking 2D animation. The new technique uses animation as a second camera. Intercut with live-action video, the animated world is deliberately drawn to match the elements captured on video, providing a vibrant tool that reimagines the stars’ faces, and anchors the visual narrative.
Composed of non-linear, character-driven vignettes, the narrative unfolds through Rick’s interactions from behind the lens. Pasha, a former cleric in his 30s, hesitantly explores his identity with childlike excitement, divulging that he is still a virgin. The inseparable couple Raj and JooJoo cuddle, one blushing with embarrassment while the other professes his love. The innocent artist Zerin holds back tears while uncovering his dark past of physical abuse. Tension fills the cigarette smoke-filled room when the director escalates a disagreement into a shouting match. The intimate monotony of refugee limbo ironically uncovers the vibrancy of the human condition.
As these humans undress emotionally, they reveal a film about discovery. The filmmaker discovers a truth different from his assumptions. The refugees discover their desire to upend representational norms. And the viewer discovers how much they have in common with a gay asylum seeker from Iran.
The Characters
