Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World is a 2003 documentary film directed by American filmmaker John Scagliotti

John Scagliotti

John Scagliotti is an American film director and producer, and radio broadcaster. He has won awards for his work on documentaries about LGBT issues including Before Stonewall and After Stonewall.-Biography:...

 about the issues experienced by gay, lesbian and transgender people in developing countries. It was the first documentary film to explore these issues in non-Western countries. It is narrated by actress and comedian Janeane Garofalo

Janeane Garofalo

Janeane Garofalo is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist and writer. She is the former co-host on the now defunct Air America Radio's The Majority Report. Garofalo continues to circulate regularly within New York City's local comedy and performance art scene.-Early...

. It was produced by Janet Baus

Janet Baus

Janet Baus is a documentary film and television director, producer and editor. In 1993, she co-directed Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire Too with Su Friedrich, about activist group the Lesbian Avengers. In 2003 she produced John Scagliotti's film Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World about...

 and Dan Hunt, both of whom had worked with Scagliotti on his previous film After Stonewall

After Stonewall

After Stonewall is a 1999 documentary film directed by John Scagliotti about the 30 years of gay rights activism since the 1969 Stonewall riots. It is the sequel to the Scagliotti-produced 1986 film Before Stonewall and is narrated by musician Melissa Etheridge...

. The film focuses in particular on Cairo 52

Cairo 52

The term Cairo 52 refers to the fifty-two men who were arrested on May 11, 2001, aboard a floating gay nightclub called the Queen Boat, which was moored on the Nile in Cairo, Egypt.-Charges:...

, a group of 52 Egyptian men who were arrested on board a floating gay nightclub in 2001. It features interviews with gay-rights activists from countries around the world including Honduras

Honduras

Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

, Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

, the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 and Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

.

Overview

The film opens with the Cairo 52. In 2001, 52 Egyptian men were arrested onboard the Queen Boat on the Nile

Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...

, which was a gay disco. With no specific law against homosexuality in Egypt, the men were arrested for debauchery. They were tried and sentenced to between one and five years imprisonment. Scagliotti interviews one of the men, Ashraf Zanati.

Distribution

Dangerous Living was screened at several international film festivals and was an official selection at the International Film Festival on Human Rights in Geneva. It won Audience Awards at the Barcelona GLBT International Festival and the Hartford Alternatives Festival. It was also shown at the 2003 San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (Frameline) and the 2005 Boston Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The film had its US broadcast premiere on May 11, 2005 on the here! network, with an introduction by former US ambassador James Hormel

James Hormel

James Catherwood Hormel is an American philanthropist and grandson of George A. Hormel, founder of Hormel Foods .-Early years:Hormel was born in Austin, Minnesota. He earned a B.A...

. This coincided with the fourth anniversary of Cairo 52. It was released on DVD by First Run Features

First Run Features

First Run Features is an independent film distribution company based in New York City. First Run was founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers in order to advance the distribution of independent film...

 on May 24, 2005, as part of their "Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...

 Collection". Dennis Harvey reviewed the film for Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

; he called it "workmanlike and at times [...] cluttered" but "fascinating and educational."