Identity area
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Description area
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History
Kelly Anderson was born on May 31, 1965 in Montreal, Canada. In 1991 she traveled to Cuba for the first time eager to learn more about life for gay men and women in a socialist country. Although she wanted to support the Cuban Revolution, Anderson had learned about the repression of queer Cubans through the documentary Conducta Impropia by Néstor Almendros, Orlando Jiménez-Leal. She set out to learn more about the reality of gay life in the island and produced a film, Looking for a Space, to document her findings. She interviewed over fifteen cisgender gay men and women in Havana between 1991-1993, unearthed footage depicting state-sanctioned manifestations of homophobia and transphobia, and documented live rehearsals and public performances by gay and lesbian poets and actors. For the past 30 years, Anderson has worked at Hunter College of the City University of New York. She is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Film and Media Studies, and faculty in the department’s Integrated Media Arts (IMA) MFA program.