Filmmaker Kristina Sorge's 30-minute documentary 'BERNICE' is now available on ITUNES. As a gallery owner in Manhattan and Miami, Bernice Steinbaum devoted her business artistry to supporting and empowering female artists and artists of color.

Malcom Harris interviewed Kristina Sorge last year for Huffington Post, after seeing the screening of 'BERNICE' at Toronto's Hot Docs festival.

Hot Docs 2016

This years 11-day event opens April 28 with the world premiere of Rama Rau's 'League of Exotique Dancers', an examination of the golden era of North American burlesque. The marquee program Big Ideas presents the world premieres of U.S. director Beth Murphy’s “What Tomorrow Brings,” about the founder of an Afghan girls’ school. Variety writes:

World Showcase, the fest’s global centerpiece, screens 38 features, among them the world premieres of U.S. director Jessie Deeter’s “A Revolution in Four Seasons,” about two young, opposing female leaders shaping Tunisia’s emerging democracy; Alon and Shaul Schwarz’s historical investigation “Aida’s Secret”; Jonny von Wallstrom’s “The Pearl of Africa”; Antony Butts’ look at pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine, “DIY Country”; Maria Arlamovsky’s exploration of the in-vitro fertilization debate, “Future Baby”; Katja Gauriloff’s “Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest”; and Susan Gluth’s “Urmila: My Memory Is My Power.”

The Pearl of Africa

Anne of Carversville has written extensively about the extreme difficulties faced by the LGBT community in Uganda. 'The Pearl of Africa' tells the story of a 28-year-old transgender Ugandan woman Cleopatra Kambugu and her fiancé, Nelson. Director Jonny Von Wallström tells their love story and fight for acceptance in one of the world's most transphobic countries, with much of the hatred and shockingly onerous legislation facilitated my America's social conservatives.

OkayAfrica followed the original web series about the couple, including an indiegogo campaign to raise funds for Cleo's sex reassignment surgery. With $14,000 raised, the couple traveled to Thailand in February 2015 for Cleo's surgery. Read their December 2015 interview with Cleopatra and Nelson.

Previously on AOC

America's Christian Evangelicals | Uganda's David Kato Is Hammered To Death Jan. 27, 2011

Uganda's Draconian Homosexuality Bill Update June 9, 2010

Fears Grow That US Evangelists Ignite Anti-Gay Hatred In Africa Jan. 4, 2010

The World Wakes Up To Evangelical Support for Uganda's Draconian Law Against Homosexuals Dec. 15, 2009

Secy of State Clinton Outlines America's Human Rights Policy Dec. 15, 2009

Updates from the web:

LGBT Rights Following Uganda's Presidential Election HRC.org Feb. 26, 2016

Following Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s re-election victory last week, HRC Global attended a roundtable discussion on the situation of LGBT people during and following the election.

Ugandan LGBT activists Frank Mugisha, the executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), and Nicholas Opiyo, human rights lawyer and founder of Chapter Four Uganda, joined HRC and other advocates at the discussion hosted by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.

President Museveni has been in office since 1986 and signed the infamous Anti-Homosexuality bill in 2014. Though the courts subsequently invalidated the law, it created a backlash of violence against the LGBT Ugandan community that persists today. President Museveni won re-election with 62 percent of the vote, however international electoral observers announced that the election “fell short of key democratic benchmarks,” noting the arrest of opposition party members and the government shut down of social media sites.

Another recent law likely to heavily impact the LGBT community and advocates is the Non-Governmental Organizations Act. Passed in November 2015, it requires all non-government organizations to apply for a permit in order to operate and gives authorities the ability to jail the leaders of the organizations if the message of the organization is “against public interests.” Opiyo mentioned that this could stop his own organization, SMUG, as well as threaten the work of other International NGOs operating in Uganda. With President Museveni returning to the presidency, the situation remains grim for LGBT groups and activists to receive permits or to advocate peacefully.

Uganda's 'Kill the Gays' Bill Is Back The Daily Beast March 1, 2015